Artist Statement
My works are meticulous, and technical; this tight precision encourages the viewer to look closely and slowly deconstruct the layering of processes and content within each piece. Visually, they are dark in value, filled with organic textures, geometric patterns, and linear elements that can occasionally be viewed from different orientations. The imagery consists of semi imagined locations composed of interiors and exteriors of homes collaged together that incorporate both developed and developing components. The spaces are often unfinished with vacant areas that are devoid of life but contain a welcoming habitable element. This previous presence of human thought and activity has modified and built these places, making them mysterious and unsettling, yet inviting at the same time.
I am interested in how time visually affects and alters locations, for better, for worse, or both. Creating an atmosphere that emphasizes the forgotten past or the possible future of a site while also capturing the beauty and complexity of its decay and growth is a major theme in my work. For inspiration, I look to my current situations and surroundings. I am inspired by simple areas and the history associated with them. I have been intrigued by the many random misplaced sites and severely out of place homes that I have documented throughout my travels. Sometimes they are in the middle of nowhere in a neglected part of a rural town with few signs of hope. Other times they are in the middle of a thriving section of a city next to a major highway or point of interest. While each incident is unique and diverse, they also share similar qualities. On every occasion time and change become undeniably unavoidable.
Since the beginning, people have come, gone, and moved on to the next profitable or desirable circumstance. Through the passage of time and the subsequent destruction and losses, the natural environment will at some point inevitably prevail over the built environment. This tension between man-made and nature, and how the two compete over the years against each other is fascinating to me. The everyday constant power struggle of life in the natural world and society are expressed in the pieces. Ideas of change, conflict, challenge, and issues of gentrification, overdevelopment, and class inequality are key parts of the work and integral in my research, along with memory, both episodic and semantic. Time only moves in one direction. This unidirectional path leaves behind both positive and negative aspects. What is here to stay? What will remain? What will be remembered?
