Growing up in an old house with walls covered in 1800s, 1900s landscapes and portraits, I found myself trying to understand where I existed in this wealth of past historical art context. I am still finding myself deeply rooted to a collaborative conversation with art’s representational past rather than leaving it completely behind.

I think that creativity needs a structure to be nurtured within, and when it comes time, I love breaking away from that structure. As I struggle to find my place in the more contemporary lines of conceptual visual work, I find myself making the art I want to see and not getting lost in what my art should look like to be in conversation with my contemporaries.

In the same way I break out, I look to fold back in. I work to actively address problems of the modern age while using modified tools of the past.

Currently I am using classical grounding to work against bodily objectification by subverting the nude and elevating it again through using the presentation of animals. As my presence as a trans person and other LGTBQIA people become endangered under the current national administration, I look to defang the fears of queer bodies that permeate conservative trends and uphold the natural beauty of the body.

Artists and thinkers I liken myself to are current classicalist Walton Ford, German expressionist Franz Marc, Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, and woman art pioneer Georgia O’Keefe