Painting teaches me about being human: it's both messy and controlled and requires curiosity, risk, play and patience. In my studio practice, invention and process are tantamount. Like the abstract expressionists, I am a process painter which means that I show up, begin the work and see what happens. In this self-revealing and self-releasing process, my paintings become a visual journal of my interior landscape. They are a reflection of my humanity expressed in bold, sweeping strokes of color and conversely, in tightly rendered details.

In this way, my paintings explore the paradoxical realities of our experiences, coupling the grand movements of our lives with the more subtle, intimate, and easily-hidden details of our stories. These themes are expressed by combining images of the serene, natural world such as water, sky and plant forms with sharply-edged, synthetic and potentially dangerous forms like electrical cords, lightning bolts and sharp-toothed monsters. I use color in nontraditional ways to heighten this tension and to intrigue viewers, walking the line between the beautiful and the grotesque.

My most current body of work (The Paradox Series) utilizes acrylic paint, gouache and graphite on both panel and paper in large-scale formats. This series investigates opposing themes such as stagnancy and growth, risk and safety, and connection and isolation.