I create art as a fill-in for language. Many times, my chaotic mind is a barrier, and I can’t put words in the right order to convey the emotion inside me. Art has become my stand-in for those unsaid words. I process emotions through making my work, and the outcome is a record of that process. I find comfort and a sense of spiritual ritual through the repetitive motions of lithography: graining a stone, counter-etching a plate, etching over and over, and printing for hours on end. These are the times when I feel most grounded in myself, the most at peace with turmoil happening inside and outside of my mind.
I find lithography to be a sculptural process. Working both additively and reductively, I build up color, tone, and texture through layers. Often, I create multiple layers from one stone by scraping away areas of the previous layer, reopening the stone to accept grease, adding crayon marks and tusche washes, and starting the process of etching again. Each layer is printed in translucent colors and reveals more and more information about the figures and their environment. This way of working is intuitive for me and is symbolic of the mental barriers I have built up throughout my life and my attempts to break down and scrape away the old ways of thinking about myself and the world.
In my series, De/Stabilized, my prints capture a meditative moment. This body of work represents physical, emotional, and spiritual circumstances at this point in my life. There is an overarching tension where two figures sit stoically in a bathtub, their bodies are close and touching -in an intimate moment- yet arguably situated in different worlds. They sit with emotionless faces -words are not being communicated- there is silence between them while the surrounding environment is chaotic. It is the eye of the storm; a moment of reflection on what it means to enter adulthood and make transformative decisions while remaining in a cognitive state of stability and strength.