statement

My recent work embraces the expressive elements of painting and drawing to criticize and re-imagine mass-produced imagery in magazines.  Through collage, I splice fragments to create abstract anatomical compositions that explore the next reality of the human form.  Widely circulated commercial photographs are broken down, rearranged and distorted through the process of painting to challenge today's standards of beauty that drive extreme self-manipulation.  The content of the photographs largely encourages people to find fault with their own physical characteristics and material wealth and to then envy that of others.  The magazine images are smaller scale, printed versions of the same content put forward by other industries such as television, pornography and advertising, which multiply the bodily insecurities of their audience while generating enormous profits. The media's disturbing coupling of sex and violence is at once repulsive, yet consequently inspiring for my artistic process.  This pairing is manifested by viewers' increasing willingness to physically remove, add, stretch, and cut into healthy tissue and these actions are embodied in the use of collage in my work.  The sinister message is present, quietly demanding standards of style, sex and beauty in the name of sales.  The audience is trained to embrace overly harsh self-criticism and to develop a defensive obsession with constantly having a fresh new look, hairstyle, and face.

bio

born: 1985, Cleveland, Ohio

education

The Ohio State University, MFA, 2012
Ohio Wesleyan University, BFA, 2008

selected group shows

Urban Arts Space: Next Wave 2012 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Columbus, OH, 2012
Ohio Art League: 100th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition, Columbus, OH, 2011