Artist Statement:
Updated March 2022
I engage in artistic improvisation or “action painting”, and my finished paintings are the tangible residue of unchoreographed, private, solo performances. I embrace various tactile application methods: rubbing paint into the canvas, layering wet into wet and wet onto dry, ecstatic brushwork, dripping, pouring, and flinging paint, and smearing loaded palette knives. My paintings are visual epitaphs of complex emotions and visceral experiences that I can only express via color and gesture.
There is an overwhelming sense of isolation that accompanies the compounded intersectionality of a multifaceted identity-- an experience akin to the life of a nomad, a life of restless searching and otherness. There is an internal conflict brewing within me over the desire to simultaneously allow my identity to define my work—while keeping intact the purpose of engaging in art to create an escape from the ugliness of a sexist, homophobic, racist, and ableist society. Hence, I create work that both battles with and celebrates the nuances and conflicting experiences within my own person. It is my hope that the sharing of my experiences will cause feelings of elated homecoming and solidarity for some; while opening the door to greater empathy for others.