In my paintings, I want to depict human situations without being bound by the logic and restrictions of the human form. To achieve this, I use vintage dolls as stand-ins for people. I am drawn to the stylization and distortion that these objects possess and the total freedom I have in how they are portrayed. The figurines and dolls function as characters performing roles, similar to actors in a movie. In this body of work, the doll characters are engaged in mildly dramatic activities. The lighting is at times dark and slightly foreboding.

My painting process focuses on the discovery and intensification of elements of visual beauty in the observable world, what George Santayana referred to as ìpleasure objectifiedî. Due to my haptic nature, this seductive beauty resides in tactile surfaces, undulating folds of fabric combined with a sense or residue of humanity. This translates literally into closets of unwearable clothing and storage boxes of fabric, drapery and costumes. Representing the human form by what covers or enfolds it is similar to the idea of using touch to ìseeî. Both evoke a sense of sensuous disorientation.

I’ve been making work that explores the idea of an existence after an ambiguous cataclysm like a new Big Bang. Viewers are unsure what kind of bang this was exactly, and now the world they see is similar to our own, but things here are more askew and strange. Using many diverse elements from Japanese pop culture and art history to science fiction, Chinese propaganda posters, and real life, these ideas and elements from our collective cultures have now become literal agents of evolution.

I use stereotypical images of America to explore our past and present perceptions of ourselves and others, as well as our social identity. Just as our minds retain layers of ideas, feelings, and images—however vague or distorted—my paintings, whether imagistic or abstract, are textural, built up in layers over time. The superimposition of appropriated images, collage, words, and paint creates a surface that reveals the memory of preexisting stages.

Continuing my exploration of painting, these works depict existing artworks layered and recontexualized through museum display. My paintings exist in a state of artistic purgatory. Purgatory not in the sense of suffering or punishment, but as a perpetual state of a physical and conceptual in-between. My works are positioned between the practice of slow, purely handmade painting while mimicking the instant image capture of photography. I am interested in the manner in which contemporary culture consumes images. There is a profound difference between

I am an artist. I draw, paint, print, sculpt, find and assemble my work. I am a realist, however, I am not interested in the simple reproduction of an image. I am interested in a realism that goes beyond pictorial reality and recognizes a broader and deeper understanding of what ‘real’ means. In this realism, feelings, ideas, and emotions are as tangible as an apple or a face. Though I make images, I am not a camera.