I like to take things that are complicated or painful or deeply personal— so much so that I don’t want to talk about them— and paint them. Sometimes it hurts. It can be masochistic. But a painting takes time and physical work and seeing the same emotion-laden object every day. It’s healing.

 

I embrace duality in everything I do. When I paint something painful, that is just one element of the entire painting. There is always hope or innocence or love mixed in that cannot, fortunately, be separated. That is what I paint. Complicated emotions. By painting them, I make peace with them, I make them beautiful.

 

The themes of my work are whatever emotions arrive for me in a piece— whatever idea or incident or feeling I want to examine and turn into a bittersweet celebration. Some are: betrayal, shrinking of the self, feminine and masculine energies, ancient wisdom, violence, love, innocence, disappointment, nature as a healer, hatred, hopelessness, friendship.

 

I like to take the chaos of media around me and pull it under my control. To weave it into something that captures how I feel.

 

Sometimes it’s dark and painful.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable.

Sometimes it’s about a particular incident.

Sometimes about a general concept.

Something I read or saw.

 

Whatever it is, I make sure to leave some parts of the process up to chance. I let the unconscious peek through. By the end of the work, I feel supported, like I have worked something out.

 

I also leave room for others to fit in their own interpretations. That’s why my work can seem mysterious— partly for privacy and partly for space. Although they are deeply personal, my paintings aren’t just for me. They’re for everyone who wants them. They’re influenced by everyone and everything I see.

 

They synthesize and break down and put back together.

 

I hope to make people feel something.

To feel heard, understood.

To feel overwhelmed.

To consider.

To bring those unconscious, everyday influences up to consciousness and mix them into a message.

 

What I dream of is harmony and making sense of what was once complicated. A sort of peace and acceptance of the world around me. I want to give people an opportunity to reflect on their own lives through my work. I want them to stop and think and turn our modern day troubles, joys and everything in between into one song that is bittersweet yet beautiful— like life itself.