Artist Statement:
At least once a week I sit down to finish this sentence: I am ______. Really, it's a boring start, just my name and two little letters that could be easily overlooked. Yet, this practice invites me to evaluate my position as a woman in the 21st century, to consider the voices telling me who I should be, the dreams of who I want to be, and the reality of who I am in the present.
I explore these questions of identity, agency, and femininity in my work largely through nontraditional portraits of women. The women in my paintings are generally well-dressed, in highly patterned or bright clothing, yet their faces are typically obscured. This can be seen in instances where the figure is in a private space, coming face to face with herself or her own shadow on the wall, and in instances where the figure is purposefully hiding from the viewer. This hints at the dichotomy between how women experience private spaces, where it is (possibly) safe to face our own convictions, and public space, where we are on guard. I am conscious of the common female feeling of “being on display,” and carefully crafting a public persona to hide behind. I wonder how much of our unique identity and agency we are choosing to sacrifice in order to save face and stay safe.
My work tends to be quiet, the figures found in minimalist spaces, either facing or hiding themselves. Inspired by symbolists and surrealists of the past, I utilize symbolic and unexpected objects to suggest a narrative. I obsess over metaphors possible in everyday things and use recurring motifs of mundane (western) objects, such as light switches, sleep masks, and balloons. For example, I love how balloons can signify youth and innocence as well as fragility and mortality. They can stand in for ambition, hope of success or love, that thing we wish would happen for us or we wish people would see in us, and yet that thing that can so easily fly away. Hands and gestures also play a key role in the work, and I pay close attention to how tightly or how delicately the women grips a balloon string or let their arms lay limp at their sides or how they are removed from the painting entirely. To me, the hands are the true portrait, revealing what the woman is willing to hold onto, release, or unveil.
Since the rise of feminism, women all over the world have attempted to bring our unique perspective to the forefront of the art world, where it had previously been overlooked. Although for decades, questions and proposed answers of what it means to be a woman, what can and should a woman do, how and when women will actually gain equality, etc. have circulated through politics and Hollywood, no perfect, egalitarian society has been achieved. With this legacy, I paint for the women who are left grappling with a vague discontent, uncertain of what they are allowed to want and like, and confused about who they are when they turn off the voices of friends, family, and social media.