Artist Statement
I work with different painting processes and techniques to build on a personal mythology which draws on memory, ritual, contemporary culture, art history, cultural myths and folklore. I move between figuration and abstraction, beginning by pouring color onto the surface in order to establish a mood. I then start to work out the composition with gestural shapes and line. I keep this process open for a while to allow for unintentional marks and forms to shift whatever idea or intention I have for the painting so that the paint itself is able to communicate independently.
I refer to my drawings and works on paper as well as short poems and sentences in making the larger paintings. In this drawing and research phase, I am building a labyrinth of personal and collective voices in an effort to express the feeling or potency behind a specific pose, interaction or experience.
Simultaneously, I am working on a series of scrolls (some as collaborations with other artists and some independently) as a way of documenting ideas and creating meaning through repetition and context.
Most recently, I've been researching folklore and imagery focused on riders. From the power play between Phyllis and Aristotle to the phenomenon of "horse girl energy", I'm interested in the psychological and physical sensations that the rider experiences when assuming the dominant position but also how the position has been used in the past and present as a form of punishment and repression.
