I find my inspiration in the fleshiness of the female body and the search for balance between internal and external spaces. I enjoy looking at the body as an open system that constantly takes in and incorporates aspects of its environment, which occurs mentally through the senses or physically through consumption. In this way the individual becomes attached to or contaminated by her surroundings.
My art is about a struggle to find, and the failure to maintain a compromise between gluttony and restraint, control and lack there of. I’m thinking about where we draw our boundaries, and what we choose to let in. How do we as individuals and as a culture regulate or attempt to control our bodies and our relationship to the outside world?
I enjoy painting on wood panels with a distinct grain because it creates a natural and complicated environment for the figures to relate to, spring from, and struggle with. When working on paper my figures deal more closely with my own memories and emotions. I am interested in the disconnect that occurs when the mind wonders away from the body and watches itself. I’m interested in the internal discussion between the embarrassment felt and the face filling with blood. My figures exist in a mental and emotional space, where they must interact with or deny interaction with their physical surroundings, and this is something I will continue to examine in my work.