These vibrant figurative works develop from intuitive marks on the surface into narrative paintings intertwined with the embodiment of human emotion and my personal experiences throughout life. The surrealistic oil paintings are considered displays of anxiety, melancholy, manual labor, the pressures of life, and the feeling of not belonging. The expressive cast of stylized figures with exaggerated features and unnatural flesh tones are proxies for the viewer as they try to find connection within the present circumstances. Fusing a variety of art-historical references, from German Expressionism to Peter Saul and the Chicago Imagists, the work engages visual metaphors, absurd hypothetical situations, social commentary, and humor to explore the psychological and physical endurance required by our contemporary life.