Artist Statement:
Art is the key to my personal peace. Art is not only a confidant, but also a voice. It fills me with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and has proven to be an amenable vehicle for translating my alter ego and my inner vision. My personal experience as a human, woman, and an individual has greatly affected my work in its observation of, and critical view of: social norms, self-awareness, feminism, nature, surrealism, sexuality, and other themes. My artworks are sites used to explore our making of the world while still trying to embody the pleasure of seeing. I tend to focus greatly on design, composition, and color, but I also try to demonstrate a narrative, using symbolism and thematic content to suggest ideas, raise questions, and release feelings. I work quite deliberately; but I also work with a sense of haste, allowing my unconscious to be the undisputed vessel of my work. For my creations, I rely on our desires for beauty, poetics, drama, balance, mystery, and seduction to captivate and evoke mood. My work consists mostly of surreal female figures and portraits with integrated insects, animals, objects, and environments; but I have also created many landscapes and botanical work as well. I paint mostly with oils on canvas or wood panel, but also enjoy sculpture, photography, installation art, and architectural design. My inspiration comes from my fascination with individualism, nature, dreams, desire, and the unknown. Exploring artists such as Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dali, Balthus, Marina Abramovic, Frank Gehry, H.R. Giger, Vivienne Westwood, Ann Hardy, and many others, motivates me to keep working and pushing myself as an artist.