Human culture is like folklore ever changing and ever forgotten, replaced by something newer and better or even just different. The forgotten, the replaced is what I find compelling; to dig up the past with its richness and understand its roots. Words, icons, and beliefs are just some of the ideas that hold such tradition from which to pull concepts that I relate.

I find myself listening to phrases very literally, in everyday conversation. As humans we have made metaphors into figures of speech. For one to say "push the envelope" doesn't mean to find an envelope and to push it; everyone knows that. By illustrating our creative forms of speech and phrases we shed new light on what the words mean. The idea of taking phrases literally has led me to seeing symbols or iconography literally, as well. The image of an animal or object can have many literal meanings, and even more captivating symbolic meanings. Through the years we have lost the symbolic meanings and in some cases gained new and different ones.

born: 1982, Arksanas City, KS

education

Emporia State University, BFA printmaking, 2005

selected awards/honors

"Mixed Media"  Third Place, Artworks Gallery, Richmond, VA, 2007
Private/Public, Plain Brown Wrapper, Portfolio Exchange, University of North Dakota, ND, 2005
Best of Show, "Prairie Fest" Arkansas City, KS, 2004

selected solo or two-person exhibits

"Idioms" Richmond Public Library, Richmond, VA, July 2007
"Idioms: Tongue in Cheek" Denton Art Center, Arkansas City, KS, June 2005

selected group shows

"5x5x(5)" Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA, December 2008
"Mixed Media" Artworks Gallery, Richmond, VA, 2007
Private/Public, Plain Brown Wrapper, University of North Dakota, ND, 2005
Undergraduate College Exhibition, Kansas Artist Coalition, Kansas City, MO, 2005