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Thank you!
Artist Statement
My work examines the complex relationship between human beings and the various environments they inhabit. Our species is constantly confronted by a wilderness we perceive as volatile. As domestic creatures, we often refuse to acknowledge those habits we have inherited from our animal ancestors. Some see the natural world as a threat to their sheltered lifestyles and some choose to ignore it entirely. In my paintings, I bring attention to the wavering line between our tamed lives and a wild, natural landscape, which insistently pushes against our patterns of domesticity. I often juxtapose scenes of domestic life with images of wild animals and use flattened space to investigate the dimensions of the landscape and to highlight both the grandeur and the simplicity of these scenes.
By distilling familiar images through memory they become unreal and disproportionate, as memories often can be. Many of the spaces in my paintings are derived from scenes of the transitional years of adolescence, the moments in which we are expected to learn domesticity and civility. As we get older, these rules become second nature to us; however, I find that there are often brief and illuminating experiences that remove us from our learned patterns of seeing. I hope to find moments in my paintings that will resonate with anyone who has stopped and looked in order to learn more about themselves.
Many of my narratives have been borrowed and altered from time spent in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina, places that have influenced my identity as an artist and my aesthetic understanding of the world. Additionally, I am interested in the ways that we interact with our urban environments, the moodiness of the city, and the constantly crowded life one finds while living there. Philadelphia has influenced my work, as I have found aesthetic poetry in experiences such as riding the bus and living within small spaces.
Thank you!
Artist Statement
My work examines the complex relationship between human beings and the various environments they inhabit. Our species is constantly confronted by a wilderness we perceive as volatile. As domestic creatures, we often refuse to acknowledge those habits we have inherited from our animal ancestors. Some see the natural world as a threat to their sheltered lifestyles and some choose to ignore it entirely. In my paintings, I bring attention to the wavering line between our tamed lives and a wild, natural landscape, which insistently pushes against our patterns of domesticity. I often juxtapose scenes of domestic life with images of wild animals and use flattened space to investigate the dimensions of the landscape and to highlight both the grandeur and the simplicity of these scenes.
By distilling familiar images through memory they become unreal and disproportionate, as memories often can be. Many of the spaces in my paintings are derived from scenes of the transitional years of adolescence, the moments in which we are expected to learn domesticity and civility. As we get older, these rules become second nature to us; however, I find that there are often brief and illuminating experiences that remove us from our learned patterns of seeing. I hope to find moments in my paintings that will resonate with anyone who has stopped and looked in order to learn more about themselves.
Many of my narratives have been borrowed and altered from time spent in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina, places that have influenced my identity as an artist and my aesthetic understanding of the world. Additionally, I am interested in the ways that we interact with our urban environments, the moodiness of the city, and the constantly crowded life one finds while living there. Philadelphia has influenced my work, as I have found aesthetic poetry in experiences such as riding the bus and living within small spaces.
