Artist Statement
There is no one operative concept guiding my work, rather it is informed by the bombardment of cultures, ideas, and patterns I confront daily in and that create a mental melting pot and visual language for my work. Working through this visual mass, drawing functions like free-writing exercises in which similarly the focus is on "getting ideas on paper" without formal editing. The free-drawing process allows me to lay down concept, design, and line organically without forcing ideas or carefully constructed conceptual commentary. The work is inherently personal and addresses struggles with language, belonging and authority.
Speaking visually, I can make a run-on drawing without the anxiety and fear of typos or misspellings. Instead the lines work together amalgamating into ornate thoughts, taking shapes of characters with strange expressions. The characters are stacked and split from each other, playing off of one another much like a poem complete with form and suggestion. Like words, the character are individual, their meaning contained in their own individual expressions. Each one of them are born and give life to complex layers of emotions that swim through my thoughts. Every face is an example of the masks that we hide under or put on to exist as social beings.
I have approached this notion of free-drawing as a means to help me cope with my personal narrative, but recognize the relevance to others' stories and the impact that it can have in public settings. With every social event I find myself finding connections that link the crowds in my drawing to those in real life. The structure of everyday life personified and unfiltered for more crowds to analyze.