Artist Statement

My work is a collection of autobiographical experiments and explanations concerning healing, identity, and trauma. My projects are conceived intuitively and conveyed via abstraction or conceptualization. For me, the process of making is more integral, to the meaning of the work, than the finished product. The resulting artwork is simply the record of my labor—and the accumulations of time, that held me in the present, and then propel me forward. My creative practice is elemental in my pursuit of self-healing. It provides me with a metaphorical space to be in my feelings, dissociate from physical pain, examine my identity, and process trauma.

As a queer artist, I am fascinated by the idea of art as a record of one’s existence. As a painter, I know that for centuries, painting (like many disciplines) has been used to reinforce dominant ideologies, within a society. It functioned as an essential tool for illustrating philosophies, recording stories, and supporting the image of the powerful. Because of bias and erasure, there has been less art and stories recorded, of queer people, throughout history and in the art canon. Rather than depict realistic compositions and narratives of my queerness—or my trauma, I rely on the interpretive nature of abstraction and conceptualization to create my projects. They are records of my existence, my healing and my joy in a world that, generally, cannot understand what I am.