Paintings in progress for Lacquer Panique, exhibition at Ivester Contemporary opening March 1, 2025

This exhibition marks a significant moment in my art practice. As a young artist I was exclusively a painter, until, having been introduced to meaning making (in semiotics and critique courses), my work expanded into other mediums. For the last several years, a return to painting seemed important, but elusive until, eventually, my expectation found my intent. Although I made my way on strange legs, I believe I have, found my voice.

These paintings continue my examination of how meaning operates in the commercial language—how we take advertising’s messages as though they go without saying, and how they inform what we make of ourselves.

An apex of this context is beauty. What is it even? It is a confluence of love, of historical remnants and each individual knows it when they see it, interpreted through their own constellation of meaning.

My work has often forced an intrusion of the real into the fashion context, drawing a line to the way we interpret illusion. In this work, I found ways to do so without relinquishing beauty. My vision is that beauty remain even through disarrangement; I move its pieces around instead of it moving mine. I trust beauty, that it will fall with me even into chaos and still remain beauty.

So, there is a sense of disorganization in these works, but it is rounded by color, dreaminess and even humor. The paintings suggest that we are no longer in the imagined safety of bygone eras, yet we move through the strange, fantastic portal of our time with agency.