Devotion and Revulsion

Passion drives me to create, and because of its intensity, it becomes related to revulsion in its intensity. I have trouble depicting myself in my art and am fascinated something other than a self portrait can imply deeper truths about the artist. I struggle to understand myself and pursue things I am passionate about, this often comes through in the paintings as conflict. Much of my work centers around overstimulation, confusion and erosion of personal morals; all things I think about in relation to myself and my environment. The often jarring content of the paintings tends to polarize viewers. I use the figures in my paintings and drawings to mediate these abstractions and process them. I like thinking about stylized bodies as a symbols for emotions or avatars for projection. Light, bendy cartoon lines come very easily to me, and I try to make the figures pliable and appear easily manipulated by the atmosphere and their environment. The body can thereby become a stand-in for some bigger idea. For example, in the watercolor of a muffin-man being pressured into sex, he is neither man nor muffin. He represents fear, bending to peer pressure and sexual repulsion. Narratives in these pieces are usually nonlinear and can only be stitched together with the help of strewn objects, items of clothing and colors. Objects like bibles, boxes of chocolates or bandaged knuckles are clues. I try to express liminal spaces or psychological discomfort and disorientation through fluid undulating line. I am not certain what the future will hold for my work but I want to see what happens next.