I’m restless and curious. There’s too much to know and not enough time to learn. Therefore, I work in multiple series. While the projects are different, they are all in response to moments—loosely defined as events, actions, or places—that capture my attention to the point that I feel I inhabit them.
In the Bad Dancing Series and Embarrassing Moments Series, respectively, I dwell on my awkward party moves and mull the gaffs I’ve made. I’m not interested in lamenting, though. Rather, I am embracing my flaws and mistakes. Vulnerability should be celebrated and not hidden. The Mental Tourism Series, meanwhile, is based on Google Street View images and photographs found on Google Maps. They depict places that fascinate me—such as the South Bronx and Mexico City as described in Robert Belano’s The Savage Detectives—which I visit through what I’ll call “internet tourism.” In these pieces, I try to spark, but not dictate, stories based on my virtual visits. Finally, I consider my figure studies and life studies to be part of my body of finished work. Studies are records of process—they don’t omit mistakes—and therefore are direct self-revelations. Like the Bad Dancing and Embarrassing Moments Series, they expose vulnerability and thereby seed the possibility of interpersonal connections.
Aesthetically, it’s important to me that the paintings and drawings I make are not simply fungible images in service to rhetorical positions, but instead are clearly personal endeavors in response to specific moments. To me, it’s creating an image, as opposed to presenting some platonic image, that is critical. I leave my hand in the work. I want traces of my effort and doubt; I welcome ambiguity and the prominence of marks.
In the Bad Dancing Series and Embarrassing Moments Series, respectively, I dwell on my awkward party moves and mull the gaffs I’ve made. I’m not interested in lamenting, though. Rather, I am embracing my flaws and mistakes. Vulnerability should be celebrated and not hidden. The Mental Tourism Series, meanwhile, is based on Google Street View images and photographs found on Google Maps. They depict places that fascinate me—such as the South Bronx and Mexico City as described in Robert Belano’s The Savage Detectives—which I visit through what I’ll call “internet tourism.” In these pieces, I try to spark, but not dictate, stories based on my virtual visits. Finally, I consider my figure studies and life studies to be part of my body of finished work. Studies are records of process—they don’t omit mistakes—and therefore are direct self-revelations. Like the Bad Dancing and Embarrassing Moments Series, they expose vulnerability and thereby seed the possibility of interpersonal connections.
Aesthetically, it’s important to me that the paintings and drawings I make are not simply fungible images in service to rhetorical positions, but instead are clearly personal endeavors in response to specific moments. To me, it’s creating an image, as opposed to presenting some platonic image, that is critical. I leave my hand in the work. I want traces of my effort and doubt; I welcome ambiguity and the prominence of marks.