Artist Statement

Working from life, I create large-scale watercolor paintings that use my own body as an entry point into my internal world. The figures in my work feel both intimate and unstable, often standing within open, unfinished spaces reminiscent of a mental cage or a world not yet formed. Here, the body is literally open, creating both vulnerability and a deep, endless hunger.

I am interested in the tension between observation and distortion. Using myself as a repeated subject allows the paintings to function less as portraits and more as investigations into my own internal muck. The limited palette(deep reds, bruised purples, and vivid blues) references both the physicality of flesh and the atmospheric quality of an entirely immaterial space.

My process begins with drawing from life, often through blind contour exercises or by tracing my form directly onto the paper. I use watercolor for its unpredictability and permeability; pigment stains, spreads, and pools in ways that mirror the instability of the figures themselves. As I move and work through each piece, body parts begin to layer over one another and shift. Through this process, hidden creatures often begin to emerge from beneath the surface. In this way, the work feels more like an uncovering than an act of creation or strict observation.

My paintings offer a glimpse into a strange inner realm and invite the viewer to linger with me in the space between embodiment and dissolution.