In my painting practice, I document scenes from my life that carry inexplicable emotional weight. I aim to strike a balance between heaviness and lightness by using the juxtaposition of each extreme to capture the truth of my lived reality. My focus is on how mental health frames and contextualizes our view of the world. With each painting, I create a stylistically abstracted reality that mirrors our own, but whose physical characteristics reflect its emotional context.

For me, each painting is a chance to expand upon an ongoing narrative where the unseen protagonist grapples with finding a sense of self, maintaining presence in their environment, and connecting to the world around them. Against the backdrop of the Midwest, I explore how it can be both comforting and insulating; heavy and light; expansive and constrictive. Through my work, I hope to convey the complex emotions and experiences that shape our lives, making the invisible visible through color, form, and texture.