In my paintings, I explore the idea of remixed culture by creating “mash-ups” of art-historical references, genres, and techniques that operate as personal and social commentary. The visual combination of elements creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. These frenetic works are the chaos that is my life: loose strings of relationships, fragments of ideas, all barely held together by humble materials. The codes and anagrams hidden in my work add layers of inquiry about our beliefs and the fragile systems on which they rest.

I am using the natural force of gravity and fluid dynamics to draw with a liquid-based graphite mixture. My use of graphite speaks to both the arts and the sciences—it simultaneously references the artistic practice of drawing, the carbon base of life forms, and vast geologic processes. The final imagery is not predetermined, but develops within parameters I set in place as I begin painting. Once the graphite mixture dries, I may incise scientifically based but ultimately manufactured diagrams into it, flattening the image into a schematic charting.

I find rich subject matter in banality. In my work, I attach myself to the sweet grime of the everyday. I see and feel the outskirts of things more than the things themselves. What some deem insignificant is what propels my process. I want to collapse into everything, all the strange matter that makes up this world.

In my work I examine the practice of masquerade and its relationship to concepts of identity and power in scenes of figures meticulously depicted in gouache, watercolor, and ink on paper. I select the figures from various sources, societies, and time periods, and compose them to create tableaux influenced by the ideas of James Hillman and Joseph Campbell, and by the notion of myth-making in general. Campbell’s monomyth (or the hero’s journey myth) is found throughout the world and is familiar to all, with slight cultural/regional nuances.

“One is taking the material of the world, imposing a set of forms on it in a very concentrated way, to actually reinvest our existence with meaning.”
—Tony Cragg

I question the emotional and psychological framework our culture works within. In my work I examine the politics of fear and propagated ignorance and, in doing so, I hope to expose our value systems and bring attention to the absurd. My work asks that you press the “think button” and attempts to ratify the reasonable through the more commonly communicated crazy. I want the viewer to investigate truth for themselves, and in sharing my own investigation I hope together we might discover the benefits of truth in a world that overwhelms us with everything but.

I find it amusing how one’s art—whether it be painting, drawing, or mixed media—can seem to have greater depth and importance when you read a well-combed artist statement. I have always felt that the work must speak for itself. You either have a reaction to it or you don’t, and the dialogue you have with the piece is the only important thing once it leaves my studio. I work with colors and materials that when combined strike a emotional chord within me, which I hope translates to the viewer.

There are properties inherent to painting that dictate the ways in which the viewer is to perceive and engage with an image or object. I am currently interested in the tension between illusionistic space and the tangible physical space that painting inhabits. This is not simply an expansion of painting into three-dimensional space, but rather a reconciliation between the opticality of the picture plane and the nature of objective somatic experience.

I am investigating the psychological complexity of women through intimate observations in the bedroom. The work is inspired by the cult of beauty in contemporary mass media. Intricately painted, decorative interiors are invented to titillate the viewer.

Creation and destruction. We create structures and decorative objects only to have the elements of time and nature wear them down. The continuity of this erosion shows us that beauty is imperfect and impermanent. As in the ancient Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-sabi, I see beauty in the inevitable diminishment of form. In my Erosion Series I address the cyclical nature of life in an image or “area” that reveals a long history of creation and destruction. The series is about process—my interest is in material transformation.