Artist Statement
Using drawing as a starting point, my paintings construct the act of looking as both active and communal. Contained within the picture plane, this gaze is intimate instead of performative, absorptive instead of scopophilic: a tool for self-reflexivity and self- imaging. In turn, the high chroma of the work—rich magentas, deep blues, acidic greens—radiates outward. The optics are both enticing and shifting, demanding attention but refusing a singular read: color as illusion, color as fantasy, color as both ground and figure. The figures themselves—women in versions domestic space—also shift and stir, alluding to yet eluding the limited aperture of both cinematic lens and painting precedent. These contemporary spaces of female action, agency, and audience are simultaneously idealistic and commonplace. At the heart of the work are the real relationships and community it depicts: artists and friends who use the domestic space as a site of creativity. It is a space in which beers are had, ideas are shared, tattoos are given, and paintings are made.
