With regard to language as an infrastructure, my pertinent exercise is its interrogation beyond the constraints of denoted words, discovering it settled into its varying regional connotations and tones. The instinctive selection of word is reflexive of quotidian scenarios inspiring the inquiry into the actions present in intimate human exchange and politics. It is a careful act to challenge the language you are governed by. Abstraction in form, composition, and arrangement of the imagery meets the obfuscation I resort to in contest to societal distortions guided by misgovernment.

 My work is a private moment made public. My interest in image-making has always been predominately figurative; I select subjects that are closely tied to personal experiences. Only closeness between artist and sitter will allow for intimacy in a portrait. My hope is to evoke with clarity our closeness, or our distance.

 Emma Childs uses eloquent shapes and thoughtful pops of color to create objects that physically interact with their environment. Through her minimalist approach, Childs transforms experiences and emotions into simplified form, color, and geometric edges. The results are eye-catching compositions, which tell complicated and interconnected narratives in an accessible way. Childs’s paintings are layered depictions of existence in the worlds we build around ourselves.

 Thomas Bils investigates the mutability of truth and narrative. Reflecting during the beginning of the opioid crisis on the absurdities familiar to him from growing up in the suburban South, Thomas crafts images that are often drawn from personal experiences, carefully blurring the borders between fact and fiction. In these slippages of recollection, he takes on the role of unreliable narrator to develop a situational ambiguity, prompting the viewer to identify where the fabrications occur in an attempt to grasp meaning and order.

 My current series of paintings is focused on the kinship between drawing and painting through methods of improvisation, layering, and the use of digital references. Using an array of mediums, such as acrylic, airbrush, charcoal, collage, and ink, this body of work explores the surface quality of paint by preserving its initial application in some areas while building up multiple layers in other areas to give the surface a more refined quality and rendering.

 A dog shadow puppet doesn’t really look like a dog. But you can look up a table of “shadow puppets,” and there it is, labeled with the word “dog.” That word could also mean friend. Or feet. Or a hot dog, which is different than a hot dog. And a hot dog is different than a hot dog. Which is different than a dog in heat. Maybe a sandwich, an animal with a temperature, a sexy animal, or the same, just at a particular time in its life. Whatever “it” is, it’s always elsewhere, running away, one step ahead.

 My practice examines issues of race, inequity, economic deprivation, the mundane, and hysteria relative to America’s sociopolitical landscape. Through abstraction, representation, and the space in between, I explore the phenomenological aspects of violence and the moments of peace/balance that exists therein, fueled by my experience as a martial artist and upbringing in an urban environment. Abstraction has formed a vehicle for recollecting my experiences as a fighter and placing me in the position of a spectator.

 My work explores memory via still life, found objects, and portraiture in minimalist representational painting and drawing. It reflects my desire to remember both the significant events and the small and intimate moments in life. Furthermore, it acts as a visual catalogue for my memories, a secure physical representation of how I recalled a moment. I romanticize the minutiae of everyday life, and I want to communicate the impact of ephemera as I remember it by visually referencing objects that symbolize the whole scene.

 I approach painting, printmaking, and video through the lens of collage. By layering abstract painting techniques on top of media, I build compositions that are portals from life on earth into worlds where the depths of the ocean and the far reaches of outer space coexist. I use archival materials to inspire a reimagining of our shared histories: family snapshots, basketball cards, and images from Black publications. My work becomes a liberatory space where the past communes with the present and Black female power is the guiding form of salvation.

 My current cloud compositions deal with the idea of conflict and turbulence, both domestically and abroad. These clouds also double as nebulas, contracting and expanding energy around the idea of conflict. These works deal with notions of political strife coexisting with environmental concerns, and create compositions of smaller troubled environments coexisting in larger yet equally troubled ones. There are fragmented figurative elements existing within and outside of these clouds, as well as tools, weapons, and vices.