_____My work is the culmination of my fantasies along with my compulsive obsession to collect imagery from a multitude of sources, such as old photographs, medical books, encyclopedias, and my own photography. For the past few years, I have worked on two-dimensional mixed media paintings, which primarily incorporate watercolor, gouache, ink, and elements of printmaking.

_____My concentration on this type of work began after receiving boxes of old photographs after the deaths of both of my maternal great-grandmothers. These photos were the leftovers from the hundreds of pictures that had been picked through by my family. These images, spanning from the early 1900s to the late 1990s, gave me a glimpse into my family’s past. Their trash became my treasure, weaving itself into my internal imagined mythology. The collection of this material is an integral part of my process, both as inspiration and as a way to manifest the connection of these images to my own fantasies. My paintings are ultimately a representation of myself, as well as an indirect representation of issues at large that affect all of us, such as the war, suburban sprawl, and the search for something to believe in. I use the juxtaposition of imagery such as innocence and sexuality, beauty and carnage, and saints and sinners to express the constant struggle between one’s true self and societies expectations of our outward personas. The figures in my paintings inhabit fantastical landscapes floating somewhere between reality and nothingness. My figures are often in the midst of an internal struggle. Stay a child or go to war? Defend an ungrateful country? Continue a doomed way of life? Believe in something untouchable?

_____My goal is not to be direct or literal in my representations, but to allow the viewer to craft their own meaning about my work, and to walk away with lingering questions about their own self, both inner and outward. I find it best to make the viewer question the meaning of a particular piece, instead of spelling it out for them, as we are on a constant search for meaning in this vast universe, it is my hope that my artwork will help tell that story.