Artist Statement
My work weaves a tapestry of matrescence, modern womanhood, and personal politics through painted figuration and florals.
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I became a mother in the Spring of 2017. As saturated florals began to bloom, showing how small seeds can transform entire landscapes, I sat indoors contemplating the dark reality of my postpartum existence. That first month – and these subsequent years – changed the entire course of my artistic practice.
While navigating my way through a rebirth of self, postpartum mental health, and the maternal care in my country, I developed a body of work that sang to the rhythms of my small backyard flora. The planting, growth, maturity, withering, wintering, and annual repeating cycle they endured mirrored my internal world.
The heart of my studio practice is this deeply lived experience – my own and those I am closest to. I speak through symbols, floriography, and carefully constructed liminal negative spaces that beg to be projected into.
My subjects are highly representational. I begin each piece with carefully planned still life and portrait-centered photography. Each work matures using traditional techniques of the old masters and Dutch still-life painters. These aesthetic choices speak not only to the cadence of my creative hand but purposefully elevate intimate, ever-evolving, overlooked stories of domestic womanhood and the politics surrounding that existence.