The paintings are inner landscapes in which I let my endless and unanswered questions wander. Is it allowed to be frivolous in a world that constantly screams for responsibility? What is it like to grow up in a dying world? What does it mean to be uprooted from nature and community? I let the questions echo back to myself while painting, as well as toward the subjects in the paintings, and hopefully toward the viewer.

With the fleetingness of oil pastels, I paint from personal memories, interweaving them with actuality, pop culture, the digital world, and the painting tradition. I express both beauty and suffering through everyday moments. I don’t want to forget or disguise, I want to forgive. The paintings offer space and attention to the contradictions and complexity of being.