What inspires me to make art, and why do I do it?

I have always felt an uncomfortable urge to create, oftentimes it feels like if I were to ignore that urge that I would die or explode. I often find myself feeling inspired by uninspiring moments. Reflected in my artwork you'll find themes of simple moments like an empty bathroom at a party, liminal spaces, whispers of memories and heavy emotional weight. Life is fleeting and sometimes we take these small insignificant moments for granted until the memory is all we have left. There's a common saying "you are pieces of everyone you have ever met" and that is my drive.

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What am I afraid of losing?

Dementia runs in my family, I recently lost my grandmother due to it and during the final years with her, she often talked about living with her sisters and all the fun times she had with them, she focused a lot on the smaller moments in life, never mentioning the larger parts. In a way my artwork is honoring her and providing a time capsule of myself.

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What do I hope people recognize in my work?

I hope people remember their own small memories, find a connection in the insignificance, maybe they remember a time where they were laughing with friends in their kitchen while a pot of coffee sits untouched and forgotten, or maybe they remember how they used to have a pile of makeup on their vanity because it meant they had plans and kept busy so it was easier to leave it out than put it away.

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Why do I choose the mediums I do for each piece?

Honestly it all depends. When I work with graphite, I find myself focusing on details and smaller images as it is simply easier to get those smaller spots, it's more of a labor of love when I use graphite or colored pencils as it takes a lot more time to finish a piece. On the opposite end, I find myself using acrylic when I need to fill out a space quicker, focusing more on the shapes of the moment and working out details from there. When I use paints I mix all of the colors myself, I find a personal connection with each of my paintings because every shade, every color, is mixed from Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. With the additions of black and white where needed. It takes more time for me to find the right colors that speak for the moments than it does painting itself. Finally, when it comes to using mediums outside of those two, it's experimental. I'm daunted at the thought of working with pastels or oil sticks, though I've come to like the oil sticks when creating smaller pieces like "Mini Illustration #3" as it provides a raw textured emotion I would like to encompass.

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