ARTIST STATEMENT

The fragmented visual presence of memory from the age of innocence is disturbingly detached and familiar. Curiosity plays a colorful role in the events of childhood. The process of learning and constructing self-identity through the latent memories of youth serves as catalyst for my creative world. History and figuration serve as natural ways to comment on the human condition. I often use allegory and symbolism to allow viewers to access, imagine, and re-live childhood. Storytelling in my paintings works like memory functions--non-sequential and fragmented, constructed and revealing with time. Rather than a linear narrative, I depict moments of activity or curiosity that can depict current events through metaphor in which the viewer begins with what is given, questioning and developing different stories depending on personal experience. At first glance, images of the normal and everyday appear simple and innocent, yet upon looking closer, the tragic and anomalous begin to emerge.