My work challenges what it looks like to struggle or feel sadness. Sometimes sadness looks like bright colors or gaudy sparkling gems; so can connection and joy. Sadness is not any truer as blue than it is as neon pink. In this way, my paintings transcend conventional emotional representations. The slippage of my figures into abstraction brings us to the beginning of this transcendence.

My vibrant, decorated artwork carries aesthetics of girlhood and transformation. For example, vibrant neon colors suggest girlhood, and unraveling, swirling marks suggest transformation. The artwork is made in acrylic paint, oil paint, oil pastel, and oil stick, in layered and consistent, textured marks. I think of this language as a record of my body and the way my hand and arm move while making a mark. Swirly, loopy marks foster the soothing and meditative experience of looking. Similarly, I let the experience of creating be meditative, documenting this through the record of my body.

The paint moves off the surface, depicting this beautiful mess. Figures shift about this tangled, vibrant space, transcending any known physical realm. Instead of depicting them in a building or tangible space, I depict them in the moving and restless abstraction. My work is in conversation with Haley Josephs and Caroline Absher, whose work also explores transcendence and femininity. We share an interest in depicting figures in fantasy environments as well as combining figures with abstraction. My work questions what we define as truth, and suggests that this feminine experience of loud and unruly expression is just as true as what we see in front of us. This is a physical representation of the way I see myself and the world around me.

I am shameless and confident in my marks and in the choices I make. I am unafraid during my process. I jump right into a piece, and make bold choices from the first brushstroke. I use opaque paint early on in the process, and start with loud, neon underpaintings. Once I put down the oil stick, there is no going back. I make material shifts with confidence. My work reflects what I think femininity ought to be doing: taking up space.