Life is made up of an infinite number of intricate stories that coalesce to form our existence. Often the most impactful stories are the rare, quiet moments that are as fleeting as vapor. I seek to capture these intricacies into a visual representation that portrays shared emotional experiences of the human soul - our sorrows, our celebrations, our family impressions, our regrets, our hopes, our fears…
In my drawings, I enjoy the challenge of rendering subjects in stylized realism where I attempt to capture both the tension and tranquility of the subjects. I have a love for the tactically stimulating process of silky, smooth graphite gliding across creamy, textured paper where fingerprints make evident the hand of the artist. I depict subjects of my family (past and present), nature, and objects of curiosity that evoke a sense of familiar nostalgia.
Building on a predilection for draftsmanship, my printmaking continues the story by capturing a moment and suspending it into a drawing that is then put through its paces - cutting, inking, and pressing. These delicate moments are transformed with intense pressure and repetition, compressing and simplifying the minutia into the most important forms and shapes. This process gives a reminder of the things that matter most in our life story.
My collages are constructed using a multi-variant method of tearing down, building up, pushing, pulling, trying, succeeding, and sometimes failing where the evidence of the process is as intriguing as the finished work. Every layer has its own history of an intricate handling of creativity. Tactically and visually enticing, the collages are assembled with a variety of archival paper, relief prints, ink washes, textiles, and drawings. The result is a ghostly menagerie of images and textures that nudge on the imagination - a glimpse of a dream, a faraway memory, a timeless place, a strange familiarity that hovers just outside our grasp.
I strive to make art that is personal to me, unveiling a page from my own familial story. I hope that the visual representations of these moments of the narrative help us to sense and comprehend a shared experience of our collective human soul.