Artist Statement
As an artist my style derives from the deep feelings we experience as part of the human condition: love, nostalgia, pain, excitement, frustration. I tend to explore subjects ranging from family dynamics and childhood memories to human rights, racial equality, and the collective memories held by our society. For example, one day I’ll paint a portrait using endearing candid photographs of my five siblings and my parents, and the next day I’ll create a piece which scrutinizes police brutality and the flaws of current societal structures. Grief has seeped into my work quite a bit as well. I’ve painted many works about my mother who passed away when I was 14. These paintings have helped me to memorialize her while I process my life experiences.
A lot of my inspiration comes from a feeling about something I see. It’s almost magnetic-- I’ll see a photograph and feel an immediate calling to paint it. It’s as if the photograph wants me to paint it. The main driver of creating paintings for me is the actual feeling of applying paint on canvas, and seeing the painting transform from random brushstrokes into a living, breathing person, object, or scene on the canvas. I paint for that moment when I cross a threshold and burst out, “Wow! Yes, this looks exactly like what I’m going for already.”
I love to paint portraits of people, animals, and whatever is in front of me – whether it’s nature or the inside of my apartment. Most of the time the subjects of those portraits are my family, friends, or day-to-day household objects.
My art encapsulates my own human experience – it aims to bring joy to others, to capture life’s most precious moments, and to find justice for marginalized people.
Visual artist, mural artist, portrait painter, mural painting, fine arts painter
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