Bio:
I was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, and earned a BFA in drawing from Colorado State University in 2016. I earned my MFA in drawing, painting, and printmaking from Purdue University in 2021. I currently live in Colorado and am living out my passion for teaching and art as a college art instructor.
Artist Statement:
Everyday experiences are too elaborate to be authentically captured by tools like language, the senses, history, and memory. These tools are forms of abstraction — they leave out much of each experience’s content. This leads to an inability to sort the world into straightforward categories. Rather than presenting narrow answers in my art, I embrace ambiguity. Like an explorer content to dwell in their surroundings, I prefer to accept chaos and beauty. Through my art, I encourage viewers to meditate on human limitations in the face of life’s vastness. My recent artwork can be grouped into three basic pathways of exploration: time, narratives of identity, and the ambiguity of selfhood.
In the first and most recent body of work, I use Paleolithic cave art, especially imagery from Chauvet cave, to reflect on time in context of the vanitas concept. Paleolithic art is both impenetrably ancient and relentlessly current. Reflecting on this temporal juxtaposition fills me with a sense of awe and an increased sensitivity to the shortness of my own life. The art of Chauvet cave, for instance, boasts an impressive age of approximately 35,000 years. It is staggering to try to picture the sheer volume of human experience that has passed between our time and the time of the paleolithic artists. On the other hand, cave art is a continuing presence; it is an original foundation that strengthens over time. Humanity as we know it would not exist without the contributions of the paleolithic people. In that sense, cave art constantly overshadows the current era. My artwork invites the animals of Chauvet’s cave art to inhabit contemporary spaces, acknowledging the contrast between the remoteness of their Aurignacian era and their strong current relevance. Examples in my portfolio include Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?, Vanitas With Dog, Chauvet Cave Rhinos Wandering Ground Floor, Chauvet Cave Lions Exiting Uffizi, and others. The piece Veterinarians at Chauvet Cave discusses the complex nature of time in connection with ritual, tradition, communication, and humanity’s relation with the environment.
Another branch of my work explores self-narrative assemblies. Despite the unreliability of tools like memory, language, and the senses, I still rely on them to interact with the world, make sense of life, and create a rough suggestion of cohesion in my sense of identity. By assembling these fragments into a narrative, I create my sense of self as a simplified composite of experiences, influences, reactions, ideas, and contexts. In this body of work, my artistic process mimics my process of self construction. I compile various imagery into surreal scenes that create open narratives. In this way, the process of creating my artwork reflects the assemblage of my sense of self while also leaving room for viewers to engage with the work from their narrative stance. Examples in my portfolio include Monument 1, Tide Pools - Sinks, Tide Pools - Orion, and others.
Lastly, the oldest portion of my recent work is focused on creating liminal spaces that reference the ambiguous state of the self. I use spatial metaphors for the inability to fully construct clear boundaries around what it means to be an individual. I present this concept by creating vast, unpopulated, surreal settings that reside between interior and exterior spaces. Examples in my portfolio include Mirrors, Self-Portrait Space 2, Displacement 11, The Liminal Self Space, and others. Philosophy is key to my research in this area, especially the branches of epistemology, phenomenology, and semiotics. I draw inspiration from Gaston Bachelard, Italo Calvino, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other writers.
Many people explore the labyrinths of time, identity narratives, and selfhood’s ambiguity. By visualizing my own explorations, I make them tangible to others and encourage self-reflection and open-mindedness. My art can never perfectly describe these experiences. However, it can provide a small window into their complexity, prompting contemplation and catharsis.
Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) member page: