Art tends to occupy fabricated spaces. Most of us live in them too. We are constantly constructing and reconstructing our environments, the spaces we individually and collectively occupy. Our contemporary consumer society is directly reflected in our materials and methods for building things. Huge amounts of materials get wasted. Materials are mass-produced on a global scale by hugely powerful corporations. They are highly processed or entirely synthetic. Sometimes they imitate other materials. Eventually they all fall apart.

 Nostalgia is being weaponized. The concept of the past as a “better time” is used as an aggressor and pushed out in fear of social progress. I’m using nostalgic imagery popularized in the “Golden Age” of cartoons to show violence in art as well as art as violence: Wile E. Coyote painting a tunnel on the side of a wall meant to capture and kill the Road Runner; a piano dangling from a fraying rope waiting to fall on an unsuspecting victim; a note in a song rigged to explode when played correctly.

 By creating contorted figures born through models, I generate dualities of human presence and simulated reality. As human beings, we navigate space with our bodies through movement and touch. The figures are deconstructed to perform only these functions, relying on body language, and form connection to create content. Using hyperreal color and light, I push the plausibility of both the figure and the ground. Water elements present in the painting bring a sense of familiarity to the viewer, promoting a believable reality while every element remains artificial.

 My current work explores implied narratives inherent in single moments in time. Employing illustrative clarity in attention to color, line, and detail, I am attempting to capture sensory experiences—light, heat, sound, smell, and taste—along with visual cues that allow the viewer to interpret and judge what each scenario implies. The perspective creates an ambiguity of subject, leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether or not they are an active participant inside the painting.

 My work has always been about time, about what was here at the beginning. A wide variety of elements coalesced and continue to live together harmoniously in these very different worlds. Those relationships are the heart of my work. I like keeping the individuality of each object/body while allowing it to interact freely with the others. Making work where people can feel the bonds between the subjects even while they are sometimes very distant from each other. I aim to invite the viewer, not just to look upon the elements but to float throughout the world that is the painting.

My paintings are born from narratives that revolve around the relationship between humanity and the natural world. They draw from moments that embody the feeling of oneness with nature; moments of intimacy, tranquility, and reflection; and experiences that allow us to perceive the greater connection that pervades the environments we inhabit. These moments are often pulled from childhood experiences of wonder and everyday moments that conjure feelings of nostalgia.

  My works are made with an Arte Povera sensibility—out of practicality as much as art-historical reference—cobbled together from discarded materials I nd around town. In this way, I like to think of my process as a collaboration between me, the materials, and the myriad compounding situations that happen in order to make the materials available to me.

 My recent paintings assign attention to ordinary arrangements of paper notes, tape, and drawings that are often unconsidered formal compositions. The succinct images examine formed boundaries, constricted planes, intersections, and intuitive locating of objects within the picture plane. Measuring and arranging each element toward a broader context that is at once ordered and balanced, and expressive of the materials they are intended to mimic.

 My creative work is a playful commentary on issues regarding society, technology, and culture. I’m inspired by the middle ground where fantasy meets reality, Western and Eastern pop cultures, and my own cultural background and experiences. These inspirations are responsible for the visual language that I decide to employ in my works.

  Remixing portraiture and preconceived notions of the Black female body is at the core of my practice. By painting representations of nature and the female form with contemporary material and aesthetic choices, I subvert the one-way window of fantasy that Western painting has long offered.