Artist Statement
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
– Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself"
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
– Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself"
In a generation full of defining labels, it can be difficult to find the truth behind who you are. Many Americans are made to believe that people are unique in our own ways, an individual. Yet if someone “chooses” the wrong identity, shunning or disowning are the most passive responses. Therefore, some people hide our truth, as I do.
I create collages with acrylic paint and graphite on canvas with various materials ranging from vellum paper to glass or twine. These collages explore what the meanings of the words identity, human, hidden, acceptance, and reflection mean to me. As I struggle to find my identity, I consistently write in quotes, lyrics, poetry, or significant words to create art based on these streams of consciousness. These words written with graphite or pen represent deeply ingrained anxieties about my journey to acceptance and self-love. The underlying abstract imagery plays with the psychological meaning, or suggestion of specific feelings, of colors while the descriptive imagery shows my visual manifestation of these feelings and traits. These layers of abstraction and description represent my experiences, feelings, and meditations that build onto one another to create myself.
Becoming comfortable with this idea of revealing my identity is something I have spent close to all of my life attempting to accomplish. Assumptions based on whom I was born as versus whom I have chosen to become has confronted me with a daunting question, “Do I have the right to be who I am?” These judgments and labels cause relentless anxieties of rejection, so I bury much of my evolving identity below the surface, only seen by those I trust intimately. I conceal my true self in front of disapproving eyes, but in safety, I am a completely different person. Truthfully, I am an androgynous, asexual person who prefers comfortability and personality as opposed to beauty and physicality.
My work focuses on the process of seeking rather than the product. They are the archives of my journey. It is a long process, but a necessary one to feel comfortable deviating away from permanence towards my honest identity.
I create collages with acrylic paint and graphite on canvas with various materials ranging from vellum paper to glass or twine. These collages explore what the meanings of the words identity, human, hidden, acceptance, and reflection mean to me. As I struggle to find my identity, I consistently write in quotes, lyrics, poetry, or significant words to create art based on these streams of consciousness. These words written with graphite or pen represent deeply ingrained anxieties about my journey to acceptance and self-love. The underlying abstract imagery plays with the psychological meaning, or suggestion of specific feelings, of colors while the descriptive imagery shows my visual manifestation of these feelings and traits. These layers of abstraction and description represent my experiences, feelings, and meditations that build onto one another to create myself.
Becoming comfortable with this idea of revealing my identity is something I have spent close to all of my life attempting to accomplish. Assumptions based on whom I was born as versus whom I have chosen to become has confronted me with a daunting question, “Do I have the right to be who I am?” These judgments and labels cause relentless anxieties of rejection, so I bury much of my evolving identity below the surface, only seen by those I trust intimately. I conceal my true self in front of disapproving eyes, but in safety, I am a completely different person. Truthfully, I am an androgynous, asexual person who prefers comfortability and personality as opposed to beauty and physicality.
My work focuses on the process of seeking rather than the product. They are the archives of my journey. It is a long process, but a necessary one to feel comfortable deviating away from permanence towards my honest identity.