My work elevates the mundane, mimicking the way we bring significance to loss with keepsakes and memorials. Working primarily in encaustic and oil painting mediums, I create work that evokes a sense of nostalgia and exposes the sentimentality in memory. Color choice is tied to the decor and design trends of decades past that have become kitschy artifacts. Patterns reference fragments of architectural detail like tile and grout lines and decaying facades. Layered, distressed surfaces suggest the passage of time and the erosion of a domestic life once anchored in stability. Shapes allude to objects that are no longer identifiable but retain familiarity, referencing urns, shrines, and places of veneration. Embellishments like fringe and shiny metallic finishes play into the chintzy aesthetic of souvenirs, recalling party decorations, parade floats, and prize ribbons, and elevating the ordinary to something to be celebrated.
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For a very long time, I’ve been interested in the experience of loss and my desire to express loss in visual form. My work in general is centered around the idea of memorial and a visual reference to the memory of a deeply personal experience. I love the intersection of the personal with the overtly public interaction one can experience when interacting with a memorial. I hope that people find something that feels familiar, but uncanny, in my work so that viewing the work creates an interaction that can be personalized.
