My paintings explore the disconnection and alienation we often feel despite (and sometimes because of) the close proximity in which we live to one and other.
It is ironic that as innately social animals, we often struggle to feel connected with our friends, family, communities, society, and the greater world. To overcome this, we ignore our instincts and learned biases, hoping to make connections so we can reassure ourselves that we are not alone, that we share the same reality with someone else.
But what is “reality?” What is “the truth?”
These questions regarding the human experience have long informed my work. Instead of answering these questions, my paintings invite the viewer to enter the narrative, armed with their own understanding of the world, in order to have an authentic moment to share, identify with, and/or answer these questions themselves.
In this day and age when it can feel impossible to understand how our neighbor could raise their children as they do, or behave as they do, or vote as they do, it is incumbent upon us to reflect on how the realities we construct make us different and also how, by just being human, we are the same.
