About Me
I have been interested in art from as far back as I can remember. In elementary school, I was often in trouble for drawing during class and distracting the other students with my pictures and stories. Despite occasionally providing an amusing intermission for classmates between spelling and addition lessons, I mostly kept to myself and preferred pursuing independent interests to socializing. I was hungry for art, spending much of my free time with the framed prints, art books, and illustrations throughout my childhood home. My friends became the women in Maxfield Parrish's Ecstasy and Alphonse Mucha's Brightness of Day, Raphael's cherubs, Brian Froud's faeries (both good and evil), and illustrated characters like Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and Jean de Brunhoff's Babar the Elephant.
As the years went by, my world became scarier. Media with dark imagery and themes validated my fears and gave me an outlet to understand them better. I developed an insatiable interest in existential literature, horror and dark fantasy film, animation, and all forms of visionary, abstract, and experimental art. I have relied on these artists – Herman Hesse, Andrei Tarkovsky, Mamoru Oshii, and Hilma af Klint among countless others – to guide me safely through the utterly terrifying tunnels in my mind to invaluable insights that have defined and nourished me. If I can contribute to the unburdening of another fearful soul in the way that my artistic guides have done for me, this will have been a life well lived.
Artist Statement
When we are feeling powerless and afraid in the world, the solution is rarely to run in the opposite direction of what stirs our fright. We might instead look it directly in the eye and experience its beauty, majesty, and connection to the duality we carry within us. I find value in putting a spotlight on the dark corners of the human mind and seeing what emerges from the shadows. Embracing the horrors of existence makes the joys all the sweeter, and merging the two opens a up new avenue of consciousness altogether.
My work is inspired by the horror and dark fantasy artists who have come before me. My creative process is fluid and experimental. I let the materials guide me to create pieces that blend digital and traditional media with elements of collage for a unique dreamlike quality that comes across digitally and in print. I like to break down what is traditional and expected into parts that can be rearranged in new ways to create visual interest and unexpected imagery.