Mind, Body, and Soul Painting

I see most of my work as a positive transgression of traditional gender norms. I have always felt strongly opposed to the absurd assumptions and limited expectations on women. From my own experience of being a woman, my Catholic background, and being around very traditional people who would impose these expectations, my art has become an outlet to vent my resulting frustration. Most of my work growing up was very structured, I originally created graphite portraits of women for years to practice and strive for achieving a realness, my work evolved to include materials such as pen and graphite, and more recently acrylic paint and watercolor. When my work is more expressive and emotional, I tend to use a variety of contrasting colors and renderings of realistic images in abstract ways. I also like to render female figures as powerful and wise goddesses because I’m sick of seeing women portrayed as sexual objects in our mainstream media, so I create my own positive representations. I aim to keep making socially and politically driven art and to inspire and empower my fellow women. I guess you could say, I have a feminist agenda.