As someone who has to squeeze my artistic practice into small intervals throughout the week, my work has become somewhat of an escapist practice, centered around still lifes infused with a touch of surrealism. My goal is to capture the unexpected compositional beauty of a fleeting moment.  I enjoy manipulating different components of the painting (color, image, subject) in subtle ways to add a touch of the unexpected. I work very intuitively and often see the full painting in my mind before sketching it out. The underlying message or meaning of the painting often comes to me during the process of painting.

“Mimicry” is one of my first successful oil paintings and captures an exciting turning point in my artistic journey. I was fascinated by these Ancient Roman stone statue fragments that were selling at Christie’s Auction House for thousands of dollars. I wanted to capture the contrast between the stone sculpture – a hard, unmoving representation of a human face – and the more expressive, fluctuating form of a butterfly, an animal that symbolizes the human spirit. This stark contrast is juxtaposed by the subtle similarities in the markings of the butterfly wings and the composition of the features on the stone fragment.

• 2023 Design Biennial