Artist’s Statement:

Purge

I have been shifting my career back to my first love: art. For years I got caught up in “the grind” of trying to have something to show for myself—a corner office, a cushy paycheck, maybe even a serious blazer with a funky pattern on the inside so people thought I was professional but also still myself (because how else can you show that you’ve got balance in your life?) Yet I realized failure after failure that all of these, after a sorely needed value check, don’t really mean much to me, and never have past a symbol of success in the eyes of others.

Pregnancy during a pandemic and a harrowing postpartum experience have really drilled in the fact that life is short. Too short. I realized I missed doing something for myself. For years my art has been done for others, and I hated that. While I have the time, I am ensuring that a huge chunk of what I do comes from the creative part of my brain that has long been muted.

So, I’m currently working on a fresh series of abstract mixed media paintings. I’m taking back art as a form of play and expression, breathing new life into old materials that have been gathering over the past ten years, about the same amount of time since I graduated from college and set foot into the workforce. A decade in it almost feels too late to change what I’ve been doing this whole time, but I’m happy I’m taking the leap.