My biological father, a religious fanatic, claimed to know the truth. A woman’s value could be precisely calculated according to metrics of surface: dress, speech, piety. My mother, a freespirited German, claimed her own truth. Beyond surface, there are things that dictate an individual’s fate: signs, symbols, omens. Being raised in a bookstore, I was imbued with many truths from the local haunts, and these countless stories became my axioms growing up, and a prime focus to the folkloric work I re-create.

My art can be summed up as confessions of paper, a way to visually communicate truths. Using paper and oil as my medium, I focus on how collage conceals and conveys meaning. I begin a piece by painting an abstract image, which I then cover with paper. I peel the paper away so that I am left with a construction bearing a nonlinear but viscerally personal connection to its origin. I will finalize this with a painted face, so the story can commence.