COLLECTIONS
Terra Incognita (in progress)
Terra Incognita, Latin for unknown land, was a phrase originally used in cartography to describe uncharted territory. These mysterious places signified the presence of wild beasts and endless possibilities, something terrifying, yet worth exploring. This series of narrative animal images draws on the idea delving into the unknown, and of self-discovery and self-knowledge by way of finding connection with the natural world.
I started this series – based on historical symbolism, literature, and my own experiences with wild animals – while attending a residency in Iceland, where I was reminded of growing up in an isolated and harsh northern climate, and much easier it is to feel a sense of the sublime in such a place. I was also reminded of how deeply connected we are to stories about animals, and how intertwined are the realms of imagination and reality when we feel close to nature. I wanted to explore through these images an in-between state of truth and memory, and celebrate the unknown and uncontrollable elements of the natural world, using themes of biodiversity, extinction and extirpation, resiliency, and interconnectedness to evoke a sense of the fantastical and absurd. Questions of monstrousness, humanity, physicality, sustainability, transcendentalism, and sense of place informs the content for this series.
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
The concept of the parallel universe is represented here as an allegory for presence in spite of the incomprehensibility of time. By portraying segmented figures melding in time and space with nature, the sublime is reimagined as a sense of exploration of the body and the mind, considering the infinite possibilities and an inconceivable capacity for experience despite a singular existence.
From a young age, I have been fascinated by the mutability of the natural environment, and by the overwhelming sense of displacement of mind and body within a chaotic universe. Having been immersed throughout childhood in a remote community surrounded by rugged wilderness, I grew to conflate the beauty and horror of vulnerability with the quiet resonance of undeveloped landscape. The magnitude of these feelings would eventually become untenable, and after lapsing into a prolonged state of dissociation that would last for over a decade, the mere act of perceiving the natural world had become an oppressive force.
By exploring ideas of healing from trauma, and by equivocating the Romantic sublime with contemporary mental health issues of self-awareness and empowerment, I aim to capture the experience of learning to reconnect mind and body, and find agency using the wilderness as a conduit. The content of the paintings includes scenes from my own backcountry expeditions, melded with lucid dream imagery and historic symbolism in order to pictorialize the sense of adrenaline, urgency, and awe that I experience while venturing into the remote places I have relearned to love.
THE BEAST IN ME
“A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.” – Georges Bataille
There is a strategically pursuant nature to the ways in which people relate to one another. We are emotional predators, and we are physical prey, chasing, luring, devouring and nourishing each other. Our roles as active and passive people are always in negotiation, and these roles often exist simultaneously; or rather, our position in either role is constantly oscillating.
This series explores emblematic images of the hunt from a deconstructed methodology. From a survivalist, defensive, opportunistic, primal, and evolutionary point of view, these paintings represent human intimacy and the drive to mutually consume each other.
ALL IN A SEA OF WONDERS
"I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear;
I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.”
Learning to live with fear has been the ever-evolving consequence of my childhood, and accordingly, the foundation of my adult life. The complex system of external, internal, tangible, and perceived dangers brought on throughout the journey of life must be constantly negotiated within the mind’s eye in order to survive, and also to thrive as the director of one’s own life. This negotiation is only possible if we are able to explore our fears, thus subverting them, taking control and willingly facing terrifying obstacles with open eyes staring brazenly into the darkness.
For this series I have pieced together and personalized several archetypal images, using my research in Jungian psychoanalysis of folklore and fairy tales to create allegories of fear, exploration, and transformation within a world of chaos. The scope of the work, as with many classic fairy tale and mythological narratives, honours those curious and brave enough to dive into the belly of the beast. It is only through adversity and unsettlement that we can expect to grow and transform. Our readiness to become aware of the dangers in our path, and our willingness to acknowledge the darker elements within ourselves are the keys to self-discovery and allow us the opportunity to find beauty in fear, chaos, and the unknown.
THE MAIDEN AND DEATH
This project illustrates autonomous female sexuality as inspired by 18th and 19th-century European literature. By examining the symbolism and imagery in narratives that still resonate in contemporary culture I aim to distill personal meaning through a close-reading and visual translation of various elements within these texts. Art and literature are equal partners in cultural expression, and all forms of expression are self-portraiture.
Just as the past informs the future, the present changes the way we see the past. Art is a mirror to society and so it is the art-makers responsibility to produce images in reaction to the issues that affect us. Victorian literature was symbolic of the time, but in many ways is more applicable now than ever. These classic stories permeate our consciousness, they are told and retold and are continually informing our collective memory. My goal is to visually reimagine the stories in canonical literature highlighting through a personal lens issues of subject versus object, hunter versus prey, and dominion over passivity in the archetypal female.