I use the drawing process to examine and combine my interest- abstract figuration, narrative storytelling, pop culture, and symbolic iconography. In There‚s No Place Like Home I interviewed a potential sitter with the idea of creating an portrait composed from memories as the goal. I combined the sitter‚s take on life with my own views of the world. After the interview I was left thinking about life being somewhere in between life in the novel, A Clockwork Orange and The Wizard of Oz. I found it interesting that at the end of each novel the main character just wanted to go home.Finding and understanding home was also the sitter‚s main dilemma in life. It became necessary to include this struggle of finding one's place in the world in this portrait.

born:1980, Memphis,TN

education:

University of Wisconsin at Madison, M.A, MFA,2011
University of Memphis, BFA, 2008

selected awards/honors

Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2010
Lois G. Roberts Scholarship, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2010
Lotterman Fellowship, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2009
Ellen Battell Stoekel Fellowship, Yale Summer School for the Arts,2006

selected publications

Manifest International Drawing Annual 2009

selected solo or two-person exhibits

The Magic Hour, Madison, WI, 2011
Imaginary Friends, Madison, WI, 2010
Ties that Bind, Memphis,TN, 2009

selected group shows

Triple Crown, Madison, WI, 2010
International Juried Show  VAC of New Jersey, Summit, New Jersey 2010
Forward, Chicago IL
Ties that Bind, Memphis, TN, 2009