Statement

 

I've spent the last few years focusing on my connections with the people, places, and events that surround me. I am creating a visual diary of my everyday life based on the situations I find myself in, the relationships with the people that are close to me, and the encounters that I have throughout my day. I do this through large-scale paintings focusing on the figure, or figures, with time and place a key factor as a setting.

 I look to capture the mundane, the banal, and the ironic. Those brief, humorous, and sometimes awkward moments one comes across in life that are often shrugged off. I look to find those moments where our relationships to those close to us take on a weight of both power and importance. Moments such as sneaking in on friends and loved ones in compromising situations, the joys and boredom of an hours long monopoly game, or simply watching a baseball game while stuck sitting behind a fan's obnoxious hat blocking the view, all the while dealing with the tension of wanting it removed because I can't bring myself to say something about it. Instances like these take on multiple meanings depending on the time line. Experiencing it brings on frustration, or anger, while looking back on it days later you're still annoyed you had to deal with it but you're laughing about it. These interactions and whether they're lived empirically or through a memory is what makes life and people so compelling.