Artist Statement

Words contextualize the world we live in, but colors provide an avenue to examine and interpret these perspectives. I am an abstract oil painter who focuses on color, texture, shadows, light, and tone in my work to construct colorful, abstract worlds to question accepted realities, such as relationships, communication, beauty, and love. I often feel a profound connection to words and their deeper meanings, and use those narratives as a release to paint a new world. The abstract breaks down the walls of understanding the subject immediately, allowing the space to breathe and envelope you. I’m particularly drawn to how relationships, connections, and interactions between people, both in written words and in life, are shaping our world, and often challenge those perceptions in my work. My goal is to unveil dialogue, question our truths, and make us curious about what they mean. Rather than see beauty, I want to see questions of what traditional beauty has become, or love, in a modern world, has transformed into something mainstream or calculated. Although written work allows us to understand these questions, paint allows us to question those understandings. Edward Hopper summarized this same sentiment nicely: “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”