Artist Statement

Through my body of work, I explore themes of class, militarization, violence, and contradictions within myself and the political landscape around me. I portray familial and personal imagery reflecting middle-class comfort amid unsettling, eerie environments. By imposing and juxtaposing vignette images within the paintings, I portray flashings of disrupted visual tones and the cognitive contrasts that come with them. Adding to the conflicting atmosphere, I use color and texture, contrasting thicker oil applications with dry, scumbling styles. Accents of stronger colors amidst a duller color palette enunciate the collection of images and their polarization. Within these spaces, cropping and obstructed views establish tensions deriving from class contradictions and imperial violence. Compositionally, anonymous figures are generally placed behind, under, or
concealed around corners with passive dispositions. Dissociative figures, hints of American iconography, and isolated vignettes illustrate the dreariness of deception within oneself and the political environment, as well as the exploration of those awarded with comfort in America. The disoriented spaces ferment the friction of lying to yourself and being lied to, and the coping mechanisms to conceal confrontations with duplicity.