Artist Statement

The way in which humans interact with our natural world has always been fascinating to me. At a young age, I gained an immense appreciation for nature when my grandparents would take me to the Oregon coast every year. I noticed how the ocean waves would draw me in with intensity and the longer I watched those waves the more grounded I would feel to this world. I felt I could completely clear my thoughts and would be able to be in that moment, me and the earth. As I began my art journey, natural things became the center of my practice, whether that was a whole landscape scene or just pieces of nature like flowers and animals. As time went on, I began to explore portraiture as well, which started as a way to expand my skill level but turned into again analyzing this relationship between ourselves and nature. Oil paint became my preferred medium because I enjoy the properties of the paint, I feel it allows me to take my time and get every detail. I work in realism as well because when studying art and art history I was always so impressed that people were able to make paintings look like photographs even when photographs were not invented. As I create my work, I think about the emotions the concept gives me and how I can portray that.

                One thing that is prevalent in my work is my use of saturated opaque colors. This has become a part of my style because growing up I went through some unfortunate situations that led to mental health struggles. I find that by using the intense colors I am bringing light back into my life. Color, I believe, has a way of affecting us, correlating with this theme of nature in my work because some of the most intense color we see within our world. Something else that appears frequently in my work is this idea of immersing the viewer in the work by adding elements to the foreground. By doing this it creates a sense of being in the scene, like you are right there standing on the cliff staring at the ocean. That is an important concept for me because that is how I am imagining the compositions. I am always putting myself in the spot, trying to surround myself with a calming grounding feeling.