Exploring connections between other bodies-- queer figures as they relate to one another and landscapes. I am making art based on fantasy inspired by what we lack. Subtle elements from day-to-day life ultimately isolate us from connecting with the world outside our bodies. Social isolation is another form of suffering- queer people may connect deeply to one another, yet, in rural areas are very socially isolated with only the outdoors as companions. Most people are very isolated from the benefits of being aligned with the natural world. My artwork sets the scene for an idealized sense of connection.
The bodies create the ground for my paintings, which include all elements of people and nature, and held within one sculpture. My work, grounded in painting, destabilizes the rectangular frame of a painting. I transform plexiglass from dumpsters. Plastic-- emphasizing the contradiction between fetishized landscapes and environmental destruction. The cut-out drawings now hang, casting shifting shadows, further dismantling the distinction between figure and setting. The translucent grounds of the paintings lend a skin-like quality to the paint, while the reflected light through the brushwork creates a sense of tactility and embodiment. Contour drawings and loose, expressive brushwork also work to blur the boundaries between separate entities–bodies and landscapes become indistinguishable. Material and visual sensuality clash against rough abstract mark-making as a brutish mode of expression. I maintain the same expressive brushwork when I work in rectangles. I paint within and outside of self-imposed frames that double as both literal and conceptual portals, framing the work and hinting at the porous, permeable nature of the depicted spaces. Ultimately, my work uses the parodic female figure and fetishized landscapes to invite a more nuanced consideration of the intersections between bodies, desire, and the natural world.