Artist Statement My goal in painting is to expose our atavistic and semi -suppressed ferocity. I use the canvas to explore the social, racial and gender driven aspects of our subconscious, and to push these competing impulses toward synthesis. With each character, I am trying to bind the deeply personal to a more universal truth. What excites me most in painting is the process of pushing through my notions of self, community and the culture at large, and trying to capture on canvas the complexity of a subject’s true face (including my own). In my paintings, I use brilliant, saturated hues to create figures that are both beautiful and jarring. I am inspired by images of African masks, as well as the detritus of contemporary life including magazine clippings, toys and personal items. Through painting, collage and assemblage, I want my work to pull the viewer into the canvas, while at the same time, I want to force the viewer to step back to feel the full impact. I’m interested in the discovery and play between what is revealed and what is hidden. I’m also interested in exploring how the use of masks echoes the greater tension between the contingent and ephemeral self and our society, between the viewer and the viewed. It presents emphatically that what we see is always ghosted by what is concealed.
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