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Abstract

In my work I explore the exterior parts and interior sensations of the body, using both recognizable and imaginative abstract elements. Through this work I address issues affecting the body, specifically physical, sexual and verbal abuse. I’m interested in moments of trauma and their effects on the body. In my paintings I raise the questions: what goes on in the body? What could go on inside the body? What happens in the mind of person during a time of fear, and how does the body react to that? What would this look like on a canvas? My work explores the ways in which violence and stress affect people and bodies.

In my paintings, I destroy and recreate my own work. I build the thickness of oil paint with wax medium, layering it on canvas then scraping it off. I also use a liquid medium allowing the paint to glide onto the canvas. By pouring it, I only have a certain amount of control over where and how it moves. This tension between my body and the canvas relates to my interest in understanding the body and its inner sensations. Specifically, trying to understand how a type of abuse can affect the body, and how I would imagine that would look with paint. I essentially try to explore this by bringing what’s within, derived internally, out onto the canvas.

Influences for my work come from various sources, for instance, photographs, books, film stills, and personal experiences. When I reference something in my work, I take a part of it, for instance a section of a photograph or film still. By taking only a section from this source and putting it in my work, I’m intentionally hiding something from the viewer. My overall intention is to disorient the viewer leading them to question what is true or false and recognizable or unrecognizable. I explore the unexplainable and unseen, and lead the viewer to question what is true and what is false in the painting. My paintings are filtered through my impulses, memories and imagination. The obscure aspect of my work creates an uneasiness. I play with revealing and hiding what I want the viewer to see.

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