Artist statement

Moving out of my childhood home in 2020, I felt drastic isolation and discomfort in a new environment and era of my life. All of a sudden, my culture changed, my hobbies shifted, and I was stripped away from familiar faces: the busier I got, the more I grew distant from my old life and habits. It pains me to feel like my old experiences are being replaced as I grow up and time inevitably strains my memory. Having recently lost a close family member, I realized that once a person passes we look to choose to remember and unearth facts and stories about their entire life rather than to dwell only on the end and the person that just left us. When my Uncle died, I went through his and my father’s childhood photos, pictures of their home, pet doberman, school dances and so many moments that had been forgotten. As a response, my art reflects snapshots of my life, documenting my travels, familial history, or significant events in my life to be passed down or shared with loved ones in the future.

Currently, I am obsessed with themes of nostalgia: my work is inspired by memories that I am reminded of after reencountering people or objects from my childhood. When I paint from my own memory, I portray my perspective with vivid colors, representative of my emotions. Interestingly, when I paint about someone else’s life, the colors tend to be monochromatic.

Lacking spontaneity in my day to day life, my artwork seeks to express my playfulness, as I use unnatural colors and abstract shapes in relatively calm and serene scenes. I also paint intuitively, rarely beginning with a fixed composition or subject matter in mind. In this way, I prefer building my pieces with thin layers and subtly changing the shapes and textures. Still, I leave elements untouched between layers to hint at my thought process and experimentation. Although I paint primarily in oils, I am expanding more into sculpture and mixed media. I am fascinated with varieties of textures and translucent colors that give more depth to any artwork.

For a long time, I avoided being vulnerable in my work. Similar to Hallward in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the painter is unable to show his painting because it had too much of himself in it, as he also hid from public scrutiny. I fear being questioned for what I say, so I often standardize my work to always be beautiful or aesthetically appealing. Doing so has only backfired, and led me to feel disconnected. I learned to truly communicate my mission and ideas in art, I have to be unapologetically me and step into my strength. With this mentality, I am more truthfully represented, with all my humanity and purpose, unafraid to hide from the status quo and boldly create my work, on my terms.