My paintings show the female body confidently taking up space, while at the same time, set in an isolated and confined setting. I am interested in the psychological complexities of a portrait that battles these two dualities and explores issues of femininity, sexuality, childhood, and the mother-daughter bond. What does it mean to feel entirely alone? How does that become an activated and charged world when the figure does so with authority and power?

The theatrical drama of art history is a constant thread in my paintings. Theatricality is often perceived as larger than life gestures, made up of characters that embody over the top personas. Yet to me, the extremeness of theatricality can reveal a world distilled down to its true essence, it feels more true than reality. Oftentimes this obsession with “larger than life” personas and experiences leads to a visual representation that references the idea of archetypes: the ingenue, the clown, the leading lady, etc.. Through “staging” ambiguous spaces I create a reality that permits me to investigate the complexities and contradictions of my conception of “girlhood” and adolescence.