I grew up in Utah Valley surrounded by dry heat, desaturated earth, sparse plants; black and white winters. Visiting family in California was a long dessert drive that cascaded into palm trees, washed up seaweed and birds of paradise. Exotic plants that took on new colors. Roads paved through Redwoods, like my painting “Through a vast domain”. This piece shows my fondness for black gesso backgrounds where I can carve out space using light and color from a void and allowing the edges of my painting to gently disappear.
Across the whole continent, in Delaware, lived other relatives. Visiting Grandmom and Grandad’s was a joy, getting lost in their forest of a backyard, plants were bursting from their seams. Thick foliage, humid green, vines and a shallow depth to the landscape- not being able to see past the tightly interwoven viridian thicket. The excess of plant life left Grandad to dispose of the yard work waste with towering bonfires. I’d eventually return home to cracking, dusty dirt and thistle weeds to pull for my outdoor chores.
My first conceptual painting was made in 8th grade, I presented beloved Utah buildings suspended in outer space, stripped of their valor, surreal and as important as the meteors surrounding them. Early on I had a desire to use symbolism to make people question what they believed.
After High School, I took a gapyear with Youth with a Mission (YWAM), Marriage of the Arts where I was trained in Nuremburg, Germany and practiced connecting with communities in Ethiopia. During this experience my beliefs were further cemented that my art was not to be used selfishly, but to move others. Imagery became such powerful tool, such as a mural of the jungle and sea on the playground walls of a deaf school that spoke of mystery and exploration or a portrait for an 65 year old woman of the Kara tribe who had never seen her image in a mirror.
Arts became solidified in my mind after those experiences as a lifelong pursuit. The luscious greens of my childhood visits became home to me and I graduated from Delaware College of Art and Design. There I had more formal teaching, “Low-hanging Fruit” is a still life of a traditional, interior kitchen scene. The twine holding apples from the microwave above was a surreal twist I added for interest. Surrealism is something that I am inspired by and explore more often than not in my work- mysterious landscapes, a dark moody atmosphere, dreamlike, thought provoking and unlikely combinations. I am drawn to artists like Rene Magritte and Yves Tanguy.
After DCAD, I started teaching Art at various homeschool Co-ops and at a K-8 school in New Jersey.
My role as an artist began to emerge: An Ecologist, making observations about the world around me in terms of connections, relationships and impact that mankind and nature produce. My works discussed these relationships and how each force mutually or individually assists, benefits, abuses or destroys each other.
“Fueillemort Fire” is Delaware Grandad smoking a cigar with his Veteran hat and a towering bonfire behind him. The work displays 3D elements such as crumpled ink stained paper bag for the smoke, wire sewn into his zipper, and embroidered Veteran letters. This piece is raw, like the aftermath of a fire.. The materials used may have been deemed unsophisticated. But the scale and mystery of this piece was exciting. Paintings of this size quickly became a personal favorite, artists like Njideka Akunyili impacted me in the world of large mixed media works.
I feel incredibly blessed to create art, my career is fulfilling and I’m excited for every opportunity to share my art with others.
