statement

My artistic practice involves a critical exploration of historical/mythological constructs of beauty, passivity and femininity.  I approach my work in relation to a feminist understanding of the idea that the way in which we perceive our bodies, and the bodies of others, is deeply influenced both by contemporary visual media and a long history of archetypal constructs of beauty from classical antiquity to the Renaissance Madonna.  

I am not interested in the illusion of polished perfection.  There is a specific kind of beauty in a scar, a stretch mark, in all the so-called "imperfections" that we obsess over.  These are the markings of a body that is real, tangible, lived in, a body that has grown, changed.  My works are not portraits in the traditional sense.  I do not aim simply to capture a likeness, or a beautiful body made for easy consumption.  It is the experience of working with someone that intrigues me, and I am constantly challenged to bring to life some aspect of this on paper.  

The visual layering of imagery in my present work resulted from the desire to capture this vitality, the dynamics and the energy of those brief moments of interaction.  I prefer to let the model set the tone, to do whatever comes naturally or feels right in that moment.  In the series, Kathryn Dancing, my friend and fellow artist literally danced across the studio, and so I wanted her to dance across the paper in much the same way.  No single image alone adequately conveyed this.  Likewise, in the Stabat Mater series, I emphasized the way that my model interacted with her son, constantly shifting his weight as he fidgeted and squirmed all around her.

The process of drawing has been inherently conducive to this exploration. Working with multiple images, allowing them to fade in and out, merge and overlap, has enabled the drawings to radiate the kind of energy and humanity that is so important to me.  Passages are built up and then erased back out as I work.  There's always this search for a balance between the open and the closed, the solid form and the ephemeral trace.  I look frequently to the Old Masters.  There is something so evocative about the ghost images or construction lines you sometimes find, for example, in a da Vinci or a Raphael.  They chart a path into the artistic process and the evolution of the drawing or study.  The feeling of this is always in mind as I'm moving my hand across the paper.

bio

born: 1980, Bronx, New York

education

School of Visual Arts, BFA, 2006
Stony Brook University, MFA, 2011

selected awards/honors

Dedalus Foundation Grant Nominee, Stony Book University, 2010
Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art, 2006

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Passage, Lawrence Alloway Memorial Gallery, Stony Brook, NY 2010
Shift, Lawrence Alloway Memorial Gallery, Stony Brook, NY 2009

selected group shows

Women, Linus Gallery, Pasdaena, CA 2013
MFA Thesis Exhibition, University Gallery, Stony Brook, NY 2011
Systems, Lawrence Alloway Memorial Gallery, Stony Brook, NY 2009
The Fall Brush Show, The Pen and Brush, New York, NY 2007