My personal work is very much political however I do many commissioned pieces and enjoy bringing my clients ideas to life. Catering to many different art forms and techniques allows me to broaden my market by providing a personal composition or sculpture for each buyer. The ability to bring peoples imagination and ideas to life is a wonderful experience for my both myself and my customers.
As for my own personal artwork, I enjoy working with closed female forms juxtaposed open and confident power stances representative of the inner battle women face each day as well as the destruction of female egos. This concept showcases confident figures challenging beauty norms by portraying large dominant women gazing back at the viewer - a concept of looking and being looked at.
My work has been influenced by muralists, agitprop art, graffiti and 90’s riot grrrl bands with a focus on women’s rights. Motivated by body-positive activism and our culture’s idea of beauty standards, I choose to depict female figures as monumental and sacred because of society's poor representation of women. I hope to capture the strength of softness and the beauty of large women who are unapologetically themselves. As a graduate of Central Connecticut State University, my background has been a mixture of easel paintings, life drawings, and murals that specifically concentrate on figurative work.
My paintings are the culmination of my art school education, research, social surroundings and are the framework of my dexterity. My subjects include 2nd and 3rd wave feminist icons, models from multiple social media platforms, and people from everyday life. The struggle to incorporate text and street art aesthetics is unified by my experimentation with spray paint and stickered lettering. Working large scale provided a mural-like ambiance that exemplifies my style and expression. Mural painting has completely altered how I paint and execute my art. My studies in mural painting were influential in my preparation, however, my painting application and construction is that of easel painting.
As my work progresses I hope to one day compile a body of work that is truly representative of inclusive feminism. When art becomes political everything needs to be analyzed: my paintings display the struggle between trying to say something through art and painting what I want. It is an artist’s responsibility to expose history, to challenge, and to say something. I may never be at peace with my body or my art but I only hope to one day enable others to feel validation and acceptance in the bodies they inhabit.
