Artist Statement

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Working primarily from memory, I paint scenes from my life to visually communicate my emotional connections to objects, people, and places. Many of the paintings in my portfolio reference my grandparents’ lake house in Minnesota which I often visited as a child  — I have painted their bedroom, complete with silk sheets; a bird I named “Popcorn” who often landed on a deck railing; the bear skin that hung in the guest cabin.  From memory I draw the layout of a room, the color of the carpet, and texture of interior walls. Oftentimes, I paint from a bird’s eye view — coming in from above and floating through the architecture, as if I am watching events unfold rather than participating in them. This can result in distorted perspectives such as doorways being foreshortened, and walls elongated. I see these paintings as works of autobiographical fiction, and in the process of creating them, I have become aware of memory’s fragileness and truth’s flexibility. 

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Influenced by turn of the century painters such as Gwen John, Vilhelm Hammershøi, or contemporaries such as Aubrey Levinthal and Alison Watt. I work with  more or less quiet moments and quotidian objects, expressing my emotional connection with a distinct palette often reminiscent of autumnal warmth and dusty coolness. Fueled by a fascination with color mixing and specific approach to seeing, remembering, and rendering hues, my paintings are vibrantly saturated in potent color. I often use several layers of paint and intentional brushwork to evoke a confirmation within myself that the memory has been made into a physical form. I intend the work to evoke a sense of permanence in the images rather than ephemerality. 

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As I develop paintings, I notice the distance between the actual event and its existence as memory. Instead of fighting with this dichotomy, I play with it— one operates in the physical world, the other in the mental plane, the act of painting on a two-dimensional surface bridges this gap. Though these memories are my own, I trust that my process of remembering and imagining translates to something universal. In this way, I see painting is an act of connection, patience, and love