Artist Bio:
I am a Florida native and current graduate student in the MFA program at UCF. I use acrylic paints and airbrush, and sometimes anything I can get my hands on. I mostly focus on the figure and magical landscapes to create spaces to celebrate the people that I love. I want immerse the viewer into a whimsical world transcending them outside of our daily lives. Common themes in my paintings are love, friendship, family, loss, humor, nostalgia, vices, food and all the ups and downs that life has to offer. As an artist I aim to share both the beautiful and ugly complexities of what it means to be human in the hopes of making an authentic connection with my audience. I have been an artist since I was a little girl, and painting has always been my passion. Now, I am putting everything I've go into making a real career out from it.
Artist Statement:
Mostly as a figurative painter, I want to catalog all the people I know. I want to paint those that I love & cherish along with anyone who has made an impact on my life both good and bad and to share these intimacies with the viewer. I create whimsical landscapes and magical versions of real life spaces. As an artist I believe it is my duty to share the most raw and authentic version of life that I can in a way that makes emotional connections. Within my portraits, I aim to capture the personality by rendering unusual colors to reflect moods, both flat & 3D approaches to figures & objects, and both cartoon & realistic rendering. I imbed my work with as much of my DNA as possible through autobiographical symbolism, contemporary time stamps, and personal narrative to achieve a level of authenticity that I hope resonates with my audience. I strive to accurately capture the individuality & essence of the people in my paintings so that the strangers on my canvas feel recognizable to my viewers through a shared intimate, human bonding.
