Artist Statement
When we as humans stop to self reflect, we pause. If for only a split second or a prolonged period, this pause brings us to reconsider the condition of our surroundings –the notion of what seems familiar conjoined with the present. I work with the idea that light cast upon familiar objects and settings triggers self reflection, triggers that "pause."

Light shapes, bends, and depicts. The more detailed and realistically light is depicted, the more light becomes something of abstraction, lending itself to its beauty and daunting nature. I believe this attribute in conjunction with my approaches to scale and technique touch upon a sublime feeling, which to me is made evident when viewing contrasting notions of reality – the real beside illusion.

I use subtractive approaches found in mezzotint (method of intaglio engraving) and charcoal drawing to vividly mimic the effects of cast light by using erasure. In my painting, I use layers of thin oil color to echo translucency. The subjects I depict are often found in the everyday - a vacant interior, a plastic grocery bag, or a sheer curtain. When illuminated, these ephemera may further insight metaphor for life and death, human and material, or use and waste.

My work is meant to represent various different pauses activated by the sublime (the daunting beauty of light's interaction with space, the real and non-real, the mark and the non-mark).

On painting the plastic bag
When using my bicycle for grocery runs and relying only on bicycle panniers for storage, I quickly became aware of the mass use and wastefulness of the plastic grocery bag. I have physically used the grocery bag as a way to diffuse light when working on a copper plate with an intaglio printmaking technique called "mezzotint." However, in using the plastic this way, I've noticed the bag itself becomes a beautifully lit and abstract subject.

Similarly, I find influence in baroque paintings and the quality of light and illumination present in many paintings of that era. Caravaggio's works specifically have been inspirational for their mysterious abstract-like compositions as well as their peculiar everlasting "voids" or dark surroundings contrasted with a heightened realism evident in the glowing figure.

This is how I treat the plastic bag, transforming the subject into a curious floating body within a deep abyss that harkens to imagery of bio-luminescent cephalopods found near an ocean floor. More so, these new "jellyfish" become plastic ghosts of humanity resembling anthropomorphic skulls and/or spectral apparitions - quietly imposing their permanence and residue. How often plastic bags are used versus being wasted; their flimsy nature versus their lingering toxic resilience on the earth; and their ability to diffuse, harness yet translate light all helped support this current artistic direction.