Artist Statement
I do what I do to share my experiences and my interpretation of the world with others. As an artist, I am constantly learning through my creative process and my goal is to continue to grow from it. I hope to inspire others to live life fully and to learn from their experiences.
I choose my materials based on the time I wish to spend and the look I want to achieve in the finished piece. Usually, I stick to the following choice list: graphite, charcoal, oil paint, & watercolor. My work is focused on the internal and the mysterious which is why I like to use tenebrism, or extreme contrast in light and dark, in my work. The recurring central themes of my work are the acceptance of imperfection as a part of the human condition, the beauty of and mystery in all things, and the interconnectedness of everything. Through my experiences, I have observed many people, events and I have analyzed my world repeatedly. I’ve come to try to understand this illusion I live in and I wish to explain what I understand about it, through my work, to the best of my ability. I’ve realized that people often don’t accept their faults or imperfections and, actually, many times deny them – including myself.
The work I create is usually very personal, but hopefully it’s general message becomes universal once it has an audience. I’ve taken my experiences and those of my closest friends and family and I am creating work which expresses those emotions and events. Therefore, I have my own personal meanings for my work, but I’d like my audience to try to look at the work and apply its general feeling to their own experiences.
I seek to show others, through my work that we all have faults and we hardly ever live up to our ideal and potential selves. My work shows others that it is okay to be imperfect. I am attempting to create pieces which may be disturbing or displeasing to look at because many people hide from the unpleasant things in life. I’m challenging people to take off the mask which masquerades as our truth, to embrace the unknown, and to try to become familiar with life’s unpleasantries. When people view my work, I’d like them to try to empathize with what they see and to ask questions about life that cannot be answered succinctly because life is mysterious and there aren’t always answers for the questions we have. Life is wonder-full.
Downloadable Statement