I believe that everyone has a story. From how they walk to how they dress, there is a string of events that influence one's identity and the way they present themselves. My work is centered around personal experiences influencing identity and self-expression. Based on my own journey with my own identity and having to accept it in a world where being gender non-conforming is made out to be disgusting and abominable by many, my surreal paintings depict myself as different characters dealing with all of the feelings I have experienced. The creatures portrayed and the environments that surround them evoke feelings of isolation, loneliness, and misery. The representation of these characters within turbulent landscapes is a recurring plot point in my work and serves as a way to confront my internal fears. Although these characters embody different aspects of myself, their transformative journeys through changing environments are universal. Everyone has a story that can be projected upon my characters.
My artistic process allows my work to take on a life of its own. I take time to plan out composition, color, imagery, and materials, but once I start a new piece, the initial plan is nothing more than a guideline. Ideas will spring up while others will fade away, colors will change in the moment, and I write words as I think of them. Despite this impermanence, the brainstorming and ideation processes are still essential to the work. Without the main question or the underlying idea I’m investigating, the piece wouldn’t be alive. The painting’s narrative has its own story to guide the creation of the piece. Pinpointing that initial experience, that specific emotion or those everlasting sentiments helps me center my work around myself, even if it departs from concerns of identity or exploring gender.
I take after the Surrealists when I depict inner journeys through identity. Painting strange landscapes and fantastical characters visualizes the struggles of the mind and its aching desire to be true to itself. I also take inspiration from music as I try to visualize the sounds and textures in music to help further the messages and emotions driving my paintings. Recently, I have been inspired by scrolls and archaic forms of sequential narratives. Influenced by Medieval tapestries, I take the extreme lengths of this art form and apply my current-day experiences and love for comics to create my own tapestries. Juxtaposing the painterly qualities of German Expressionism and Surrealism with the illustrative characters and comic book word boxes informs my unique style. This combination of influences and inspirations has allowed the exploration of self within the mind to take form on the canvas. The future of my art practice will continue my journey of understanding the self with larger and more experimental paintings, unique personal narratives, and branching out to new mediums.