Artist's statement
Full Artist's statement
I was born in 1987, and have been painting ever since I could hold a brush. I was raised predominantly in Northern Virginia, however as my family was with the State Department I spent some of my formative years in Saudi Arabia and Tanzania. I began to think seriously about becoming an artist while in high school, and decided to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, where I graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in illustration. However, I graduated in the spring of 2009, when our country was experiencing a severe economic crisis. With so many experienced illustrators out of work, I realized that my drawing abilities were not up to par. So I went to attend the Angel Academy of Art from 2011-2014, and fell in love with the traditional, more academic style of painting. I finally learned the techniques necessary to explore my ideas, and, sometimes, just to paint something pretty. Now I'm back out in the world, and striving to make a living off of doing what I love.
I paint in a style that recalls a time when artists were trained academically to paint. My work represents a return to the academic styles, to naturalistic views, to when the everyday layman could look at a painting and find meaning in it, even if that meaning is as simple as "This is pretty and would look good over my couch.” Of course, I strive to imbue my work with deeper themes, beginning with reflections of our modern society represented in an old-fashioned manner, ranging from grief and loss to the pleasures of a fresh harvest or the smaller indulgences of life that a fast paced society so often takes for granted. I look at our modern world, and I look for the quiet spaces that still exist, and do my best to represent that on canvas, from my landscapes to my still lives. I strive to capture a sense that, while our world keeps progressing, there is always a moment for reflection.