Les Fleurs du Mal Painting

I am a multi-disciplinary artist living in Chicago, working in oil paint, installation, and object-based practices. Currently, I am exploring representation of objects and how they vacillate between imagination and that which is tangible. The distance between these two perceptions is informed by an individual’s life experiences; everyone lives to a different degree inside a dream. I incorporate reclaimed objects, as well as a variety of other media, into my work, expressed in the form of assemblages that integrate items from my environment into a cohesive piece. This creates space to explore placement and redefines accepted associations. Similarly, my paintings are composed of non-connected objects intuitively painted on the canvas, creating surrealistic compositions that explore the relationship shared by these objects, blurring the edges between eroticism and banality of this dreamscape, informed by the real world. This provides the viewer a metaphoric playhouse to wander though unknown topographies of their imagination. We are exposed to an overwhelming degree of stimuli daily, creating an anesthetized perception of the world. My intent is to jar the viewer out of their walking numbness, granting them permission to delve into and re-examine familiar objects with fresh eyes. Like a Zen parable, I want my work to confound the logical brain to access a deeper, more nuanced truth.