Artist Statement

My work explores the relationships we have with ourselves and with others. I am particularly interested in how self-understanding evolves over time and how it is deeply shaped by our connections with others.

Our bodies often serve as our first point of contact with the world and with other people and, in the same breath, act as memoirs of what we have experienced. Much of my work is informed by explorations of the body, which I see as a complex site where identity is lived and expressed—through scars, pleasure, the embodied experience of emotion, and our means of moving through the world.

Points of Contact began during the COVID-19 pandemic as an exploration of what it feels like to be near others during a time marked by fear, loneliness, and isolation. Rather than serving as a lament of disconnection, the series seeks to make visible the intensity and importance of human connection despite the state of the world. I explored how embodied emotional experiences arise in relation to others—how we share in experience without physical contact, and how, when physical contact is possible, it becomes incredibly valuable. The series traces relationships across a spectrum: from strangers, to mother and daughter, to lovers and friends.

Elegiac Figures is an ongoing collection of paintings that considers how we remember past selves. Partly inspired by my research in philosophy, the series explores how traumatic experiences dramatically reshape our sense of self. Through this work, I aim to explore the tenderness and nostalgia with which we view these selves that did not carry forward, how we gently mourn the loss of versions of ourselves that never made it beyond certain moments, and how time makes their contours increasingly difficult to hold onto.

I work primarily in two-dimensional media, mostly watercolor and oil paint, though I also explore sculpture, installation, and performance-based work when space and resources allow. I am drawn to materials that possess a life of their own and a degree of unpredictability. Watercolor, for instance, resists total control; rather than handing full authority to the painter, it requires constant reciprocity as pigment takes hold and moves through water. In this way, my art informs my materials, and my materials, in turn, inform my art.

I am also interested in substances that carry preconceived connotations, as they seem to bring with them their own kind of life. I often repurpose such materials to challenge or reframe their usual associations. These include soap, old letters, ashes, candy, eggshells, lipstick, and poisonous plants.

Last Updated 9/25/2025