I reach for a feeling, thought, or place in time, and translate it into an experience for the viewer. My figurative oil paintings start with underpaintings that are alive, mimicking moments of fluorescence in nature. My process begins with this luminance which I then cover up, layer by layer. It explores the process of my thoughts, constantly adding, layering, and revisiting memories. My most recent works explore quicker thoughts, impulses, and instances. My figurative oil paintings show a person’s unconscious mind state. Lost in thought or movement, unaware of the surrounding real world. Faces and bodies stilled while the rhythm of the world moves around them. Surroundings fade into a void-like space.

Depicting images of a person wrapped up in their own head, in a landscape nobody but they possess, brings to light the concept of an innerspace. I define this place as nostalgia, memory, repetitive thought, and anywhere the mind reaches that you can’t suppress. A conversation with a tangled internal monologue, a place which is comforting but barren and unpopulated. I paint these places to find understanding of myself and the world around me. I explore this place alone as seen in works, Teeth and my treescapes. The place burns with a brightness of fiery warmth cooled by stillness and an eerie tranquility. The places feel odd, distant. They fade into the horizon with high saturation color muted by a white fog I pounce onto the canvas with a round brush and quick, pointed jabs. There’s a quiet violence to these images, a grinding tension mixed with silent stillness. The viewer stands in opposition to the environment but simultaneously belongs within it. In this world, light shines as a warm chrome yellow and shadows darken into deep, pure phthalo blue. The frequency of the color yellow speaks to the chronic state of living inside oneself. Always doubting, abusing, and recalculating self-worth; losing sight of an identity once held. The poetry of color and light form a sardonic narration of dark themes. My fading realms of blue space convey a sense of sameness, of constant introspection.

The longer you remain inside my paintings, the more familiar the light’s refrain: my next move, the next highlight of my cheek, the next shadow of the crumpled sheets. You get lost in the intense yellow glow, the warmth contrasting the coldness of such loneliness. Flowers leap from the sheets, creeping Viridian vines climb the walls, and pastel lights swirl around my still form. In my most recent works, this self-isolation takes on a peaceful quality. My expression becomes one of tranquility rather than focus and my forms move towards the light, moving with the dazzling vibrancy of the highly saturated emotions.