In my work, I use portraiture as a vehicle for creating a series of personal vignettes. Always formal, and often theatrical, each portrait serves as an assertion of a state of being. They are artificial moments invented in support of real sentiments.

I am constantly examining human relationships through these devised images; assigning roles, removing context, arranging objects, and offering it up for reinterpretation. By employing metaphor and my own sense of visual symbolism, I develop a "poetic description" of the kind of presence I wish to convey.

born: 1970, New London, CT

education:

New Mexico State University, MFA, 1998
Maryland Institute, College of Art, BFA, 1993

selected awards/honors

Best of Show award, In the Flesh II, National Juried Exhibition, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA, 2009
Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program Grant, RAIR Program, Roswell, NM, 2003
Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship Award, Kansas Arts Commission, Topeka, KS, 2002

selected publications

The Perception of Appearance: A Decade of American Contemporary Figurative Drawing, Frye Art Museum, 2002

selected solo or two-person exhibits

The Mulvane Museum: Devised Images, Topeka, KS, 2004
Wichita Center for the Arts: Ann Piper, Wichita, KS, 2002

selected group shows

Target Gallery: In the Flesh III, Alexandria, VA, 2011
Lore Degenstein Gallery: A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art, Selinsgrove, PA, 2010
Federation Gallery, Painting on the Edge: International Exhibition, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2006
The Kentucky Museum of Arts and Design: As I See Myself, Louisville, KY, 2004