Artist Statement

My work focuses on the mind, more particularly when the mind is in peril. It
explores a variety of questions related to the nature of the mind and how that alters and
distorts our perceptions of reality. These battles of the mind stem from my attempts to
confront my own struggles with developmental and psychological disorders, the
distortion of my memories altered by a distorted perception of reality, and the traumas
that both led to and were caused by these internal struggles.

I incorporate organic forms, such as flora, fauna, and the human figure and inflict
it with signs of rot or death. Representations of mold, disease, or decomposition bring to
the surface this idea of sickness and the slow destruction of another living thing. The
often-violent clash of life and death brings the unseen fight of a mental and spiritual
battle into a physical space. This theme of death is ever present in my work. The
acknowledgement of death is a brutal confrontation with reality. Our perceptions of the
subject both influence and are influenced by how our brains cope with our own mortality
and the effects of grief.

This idea of perception is integral to my work. Using mixed media and
assemblage, I aim to bridge the abstract with the recognizable. The dark and muted
colors, collaged textures, and often large scale of my sculptures evoke a surreal and
unnerving feeling as it entices the viewer into its orbit of sorrow and psychological
anguish. My drawings emphasize high contrast. Using charcoal, graphite, and pen and
ink, I push for semi-realism while purposefully obscuring and distorting aspects of the
figure and their surroundings, highlighting the “darkness” of an unstable mind, both
literally and conceptually.