beneath the surface
I was always described as imaginative growing up. I would invent my own secret worlds in the woods and scrawl fantastical beings into the margins of my notebooks, all in an attempt to glamourize or in some cases escape the outside world. In short, it was my response to reality. I needed a way to process the negativity of society, especially its intrinsic duplicity. My work is primarily concentrated on the filtration of aspects of this world into the comfort of a controllable fantasy. Being able to combine joy and pain together on a surface is what I consider to be a true reflection of the nature of humanity. Through narratives, I explore the concept of finding beauty within imperfection and depicting the duplicity of humanity that I had noted from such a young age.
I portray this duplicity by forging a vision in my mind often via language, something aided by my background in studying English through literature and writing. There is a solace I have always found in words and their expected capacity to define the world we exist in. I frequently find myself physically binding literal text to a work to emphasize the themes represented, reflective of the relationship language has to the human comprehension of the world.
I then create the forged vision with whatever media seem necessary to bring it to fruition. I rely mostly on drawing-based techniques applying watercolor, graphite, acrylic, collage or various other mediums to enliven the surface. These materials coalesce into the narratives featuring characters in various states of mind which convey the conflicting sense of emotion I strive for. The technique is duplicitous in and of itself; simultaneously spontaneous and structured.