In search of a departure from prevailing ideas around figuration, I imagine the body as impermanent, morphing and changing as a representation of complex emotion and cognition. Rooted in my own longtime battle with depression—and the significant reprieve found through psychedelic therapy—I pursue world-building that draws from my studies in consciousness and melancholia, as well as theories around “deep adaptation” in the face of climate crisis. The works omit the presence of modern infrastructure entirely, reflecting on the failed promises of modernity and contemplating a future in which the object world has been emptied of significance.

Inspired by Surrealism’s psychological underpinnings, I begin each painting by amassing a multitude of images to create a digital collage as an interpretation of the exquisite corpse, wherein a figure is formed through intuition rather than as a product of the conscious, disciplined mind. This process—along with an application of oil paint that is active and divergent—channels the metaphysical and expresses a human condition that is awkward, expansive, and fragmented.