* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
My practice is a mutation of historical propaganda, religious morality and fetishes of Americana magnified to form a disturbing world that reflects the oddity of our own. I create this slippery space using multiple types of media, with an emphasis on painting and sculpture. Each piece struggles to find its own precarious sense of balance, playing out psychological fantasies of power and identity. In my paintings I use visual cues from film and art history to create landscapes that strain under the pressure of their own absurdity, constantly battling the forces of their own sinister nature. Likewise, my small scale sculptures are an investigation into the after shocks of manifest destiny and the idealization of the American dream, viewed through the lens of 1950’s folk musicals, collectible figurines, and the childhood dolls I once played with.
On a deeper level, I am interested in the creation of America as a folk symbol and as a constantly evolving fantasy. In particular, I am fascinated by the seduction and terror of American mythology and its relationship to the sublime, as well as how the after-shocks of manifest destiny influence our perception of ourselves. To investigate these issues I create a world populated with naive and innocent figures acting out their own legend, blind to the dangers around them or those that exist within themselves. In my work the fantasies and clichés of our own world combine and breed, creating a hyperbolic landscape populated by a society lost in their own myth.
