Artist's Statement
My general aesthetic concern, both as an individual artist and as an admirer of the art of others, basically centers on the exploration of states of suffering. So much of our culture exists to shield us and separate us from a direct awareness of the suffering of others: even as we are overwhelmed by a nightly barrage of dystopian images on the evening news (whether it be the tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chaotic impact of U.S. imperialism abroad, mass shootings, refugee crises, or the oncoming climate disaster), the overall effect is to numb us, to render us paralyzed and detached from both the outrage of these images and from our own involvement in and capacity to change them. My work would ideally aim to counterpoint such desensitization by bringing the viewer into a more immediate and unsettling contact with the reality of suffering (either physical or emotional), jolting them into a clearer understanding of their relationship to these scenes as a spectator and thus hopefu...