Passages
Questions of identity are at the heart of my practice. While cultural and racial history frame much of what we think of as identity, I am interested in exploring the more “fluid” or non-fixed aspects of being human. Moments of transition or passage, contradictory emotions, and states of duality are what I am trying to explore in these portraits.
The people in these paintings, mostly children or young adults, inhabit a non-literal space that’s sometimes crowded with conflicting messages, diagrams devoid of context, and disintegrating letterforms. In other words, a sort of information overload. I am interested in depicting the bravery, wariness, defiance and hope that young people often manifest in uncertainty - subjects frequently sentimentalized in coming-of-age stories. Such narratives are relevant to me because every day is a passage through uncertainty, and whatever innocence we posses must be nurtured and fiercely protected.