Artist Statement

Through representational painting and drawing, my work expressively combines topics of hyper-consumerism, farming practices, ethnobotany, dangers of contemporary industrialization, and distant memories of childhood nostalgia. Many factors inspire my thinking and the academic research involved preceding the physical creation of my artwork, ranging from radical explorations of environmental activism in the mistreatment of humans and animals alike due to large-scale farming systems to the influences surrounding Rudolf Steiner’s creations of Anthroposophy and biodynamic farming. Since my work is rooted in contemporary environmental concerns caused by humanity, I find academic research to be the primary location for investigation, where my ideas sprout that lend to my subject matter. 

What I paint and what I draw exist in separate styles. My paintings are an evocation of large and subtle disruptions. Alizarin red painted toenails of a bare-legged broiler chicken. Papaver somniferum in its many shapeshifting forms. Other paintings serve as more subtle pleasantries, a slice of strawberry shortcake floating through the sky, a beach crab harmlessly dragging a half-smoked cigarette on the sandy shore. My drawings are ethnobotanical illustrations, often exploring modern histories and physicalities of food and plant groups in relation to the cuisines I grew up with. My work exists in its core as my life-long, vibrantly blossomed infatuation with the food that I eat and understanding where it comes from.