I paint abstract works that probe the dynamics of line, color, mark-making, and fluctuation of process as a derivative of how I navigate my footing as a woman and a mother in our ever-changing universe.
Reflective and present, I surrender to the dialogue of process as I begin to develop a surface and make decisions. In many of my paintings, I create fields of multi-layered congestion, which are heavily saturated, integrated sections of the canvas filled with marks, lines, directional patterns, and bold, saturated color combinations. As I paint, I make connections between discord and harmony. I use this method and the interplay of acrylic, spray paint, paint pens, and other mediums as a metaphor for the paradoxical ways life unfolds.
I find that exploring different approaches to painting widens the space for new dialogues to emerge, emulating real-life examples of what I am open to and what I refuse to see. For this reason, I work in series and consider these groupings of paintings to be unique visual abstract stories of the human experience through diverse lenses and perspectives. By informing the work with frayed notions and complexities of anxiety, misperceptions, stigmas, and patriarchal narratives, I navigate my way through the messiness, the struggle, until I reach a sense of peace and resolve within myself and the work.
"painting is my voice, my language. it is the truest version of myself that I can only describe in words as a sacred communion of emotional, spiritual and physical presence, serving as a bridge that connects me at a greater level of consciousness with myself and the world around me."
"Art was the only thing
I was certain I was good at and making it brought
me pure joy."
"
Thoughts Behind the Margin Series
A teenage girl nervously sits at her desk. She feels small and stupid. Her mind, flooded with a cacophony of self-loathing chatter as she struggles to learn and understand what the teacher is teaching. Her anxiety is through the roof. She picks up her pencil and fills the margins of her paper.
A revelatory studio session jolted me back to memories of my days as a nervous high school student when I noticed a transition in my work that encompassed the use of repetitive mark-making. Learning had become increasingly arduous for me and my inability to focus and comprehend the material had me retreating to the margins of my paper, packing them with rhythmic lines, shapes, and patterns. In retrospect, I believe it was my coping mechanism to help alleviate the state of my severe stress and anxiety.
This recollection led to further exploration of new work involving these comforting methods that I relied on as a teenager. This paradigm shift in my work has seemingly altered how I approach painting. How I employ line work is a direct correlation to youthful days of self-deprecation and self-preservation. Working with a variety of mediums, I’m revisiting an entity that consequently contributed to my lifelong feeling of intellectual inferiority and offering it renewed meaning woven into the details of these multilayered works.