I was educated as a painter. By the time I reached New York in 2000, my work consisted mostly of abstract painting. However, by 2002 I began to feel restricted by painting. My work was beginning to reference socioeconomic narratives and a divergent theoretical context that I felt were no longer compatible with the formal confines of abstract painting. I began to make sculptures, installations, and mixed media works. Because of my background and education, I continue to approach this work with the same aesthetic concerns I did my paintings. The earlier sculptures incorporated painting more didactically with solitary figurative sculpture, which then evolved into more elaborate narrative installations.

The process for my later and current work begins with research into a specific historical event, myth, or allegorical tale. This serves as a foundation, which I then push to reinvent within the present political and cultural context. I will often work with (but am not limited to) symbols inherent to the phenomenon of comfort and apathy or corporate greed and the marginalized and commodified idea of rebellion combined with, for example, the Haymarket Square riots, Robin Hood, or the allegorical tale of the Wizard of Oz. The research is involved in a working process combined with image collection, form variations, color samples, and plan layouts. This in turn leads to smaller works, drawings, and tangential ideas that accompany the research until the larger, focused project comes to fruition.

My later work depicts hyper-realistic figures in comi-tragic scenes. There is an emotional response to the figures; but within the context of the overtly fake objects, scenarios, and set style construction, the reaction is often initially comic. Thus, the humorous situations are used to mask, but ultimately serve to intensify tragedy and sociopolitical realities. The faux aesthetic, exemplified by the black and white furniture, and the anonymity of the trepidation allows for a distanced reaction replicating, at the most basic level, the experience of watching television or viewing a photograph of a painting. However, the physical closeness and the hopelessness of the spectacle solicit a moment of questioning reality as well as emotional responses. This requires contemplation of the despondent, horrible realities that lie beneath one’s response, coupled with deconstructing the symbolism and narrative within the piece as a whole. For example, the fake furniture is intended to draw attention to itself as well as other material symbols for fulfillment and simultaneously trigger a critical investigation of their significance. Meanwhile, the initial reaction to the hyper-realistic figures unravels and the faux reality falls apart, revealing the dialogue between the multifaceted and distinctive elements of the installation.