statement

This body of work examines the culture of blue-collar middle class individuals returning to the hometowns and neighborhoods that they had originally attempted to escape.  Each portrait reveals the connect and disconnect between ubiquitous suburban landscapes and its residents while also presenting questions such as: "What has my life become?" and "What will everyone think of me now?"

The figures that I depict in these spaces are friends and family that I grew up with who had left the neighborhood, mainly for college or the military, and then returned to that once-familiar place.  In exploring these relationships I am also examining my own return to my hometown city of Parma, Ohio.  Conveying portraits over the repetitive quality of the cookie-cutter houses that had surrounded this social group is an effort to present the faded memories and faded ideals that are so common with this cyclical experience.  These sentiments toward this homecoming are represented within facial expressions that mirror a psychological state of "settling"; an acceptance of the realization that they have come back to a place that they might possibly never leave again.

bio

born: 1983, Cleveland, Ohio

education

Ohio University, MFA, 2011
Bowling Green State University, BFA, 2006

selected awards/honors

Finalist in The Artist's Magazine 28th Annual Art Competition, 2011
Best in Show, Ohio Art League 99th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition, Columbus, OH, 2010
Full Tuition Scholarship, Ohio University, 2008-2011
Full Teaching Assistantship, Ohio University, 2008-2011

selected publications

Blue Canvas Magazine, Issue:9, July 2011

selected solo or two-person exhibits

"Return," The Bonfoey Gallery, Cleveland, OH, 2011
"MFA Thesis Exhibition: Parma Circle," Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens, OH, 2011

selected group shows

"Athens Voices," The Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH, 2011
"Ohio Art League 99th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition," Columbus, OH, 2010
"Resurface," Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens, OH, 2009
"Surface Tension," Trisolini Gallery, Athens, OH, 2009