statement

My current body of work is a series of portraits about secrets. Each work begins with an intimate conversation. My subjects agree to tell me a secret while I photograph them as reference for my paintings. Over the course of our conversation, I try to reach past the secret they have prepared to less-traveled territory. Arriving at this place requires that I am as honest and open with my subjects as they are with me. While I am an active participant in the dialogue, I try my best not to lead the conversation, allowing my subjects to take the conversation as far as theyíre willing to go.

I believe that involving myself so personally with my subjects makes me a more thoughtful painter. Because they make themselves so vulnerable, I feel a great sense of responsibility to render the emotions of my subjects accurately and honestly. I use pallet, composition and scale to reveal as much as I can and I strive for each piece to give the viewer the sense of sitting across from someone during an intimate conversation.

I started this project expecting juicy tidbits of sordid affairs, and have come away surprised by the range of secrets my subjects consider to be most personal and private. Through this process I have heard stories that are tragic, shocking, bizarre, unexpectedly funny and amazingly tender. My goal with these works is to capture my subject at a reflective moment of insight when intimate conversation allows for an uncorking of long held and often unexamined experiences trapped in time. I hope to capture the moments of truth that happen through story telling, by being a compassionate listener and giving my subjects the opportunity to examine an experience at armís length and in the light of day.

bio

born: 1985, Los Angeles

education

CSU Chico, BFA, 2007
Academy of Art University, MFA, 2010

selected awards/honors

Janet Turner Purchase Prize, CSU Chico, 2007

selected publications

Creative Quarterly "100 Best Annual", 2014
Creative Quarterly 32, 2013

selected solo or two-person exhibits

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, 688 Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2010

selected group shows

Women Painting Women, Richard J Demato Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, 2014
Women Painting Women, Principle Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina, 2014
Tarot, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2013
Tiny, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2013