statement

This work deal's with fear and inner horror: a mentality triggered by unattained goals, nightmares, irrational thoughts, paranoia, imagined trauma, etc. For example: the imagined fear that you'll be fired, of turning into someone or something you despise, that you'll be shot by a bullet, that you'll get hit by a powerful locomotive, that you'll slip and fall off a tall building in a single bound, etc.

At times these fears can overwhelm and disable daily function. It's almost as if everything you're supposed to be thinking about has become totally irrelevant and there's a spotlight on this anxiety. Living like this for too long and you'll start to plan everything you do around this anxiety, which will, in turn be all that defines you. This was the idea behind the lighting of this piece: putting a spotlight on these inner horrors which are represented by the dark tunnel on the right.

Depersonalization or escaping reality has become a major theme in my work. You can be a part of this world and at the same time completely out of it; distracted by your own inner horrors. A mentality similar to confirmation-bias: where everything you see is a reminder or a reason to support these horrors.

When I was young, I remember becoming completely lost in comics; leaving reality and entering a world where I was punching out the Joker in a bleak polluted landscape where math homework didn't exist. In my opinion, that is the silent purpose of all entertainment: to take the viewer out of reality or to give the viewer a momentary respite from what bothers them.

What drew my interest to comic books was the psychology of the characters. What would drive a man to put on a cape and risk their life? Why would a person try to gas an entire city with laughing gas just to rob a bank? These characters would go to such fantastical lengths to accomplish their goal. When a reader sees a superhero that is up against a cabal of highly intelligent supervillains and the superhero wins every time, the reader's problems pale in comparison. "My math homework sucks, but at least I don't have to fist fight the injustice league's army!"

This is one of the ideas behind why I use ink: to depict reality in a medium used to take the viewer out of reality. Since ink is permanent, it demands accuracy and focus. It is not a medium that allows mistakes and everything must be drawn correctly. If something is out of place, it was done as a subtle way to enhance the narrative. For example: if the work is done from the point of view of someone afraid of the number five, than everywhere there would be numbers, they will be fives. My work, "Obstruct," is a depiction of the real world through the eyes of the anxious. A reality so saturated in inner horror that it has become a world of fantasy.

bio

born: 1988, Kalamazoo, Michigan

education

Kendall College of Art and Design, BFA, 2012

selected awards/honors

Judge's Award, Rockford Art Museum Greenwich Village Art Fair, Rockford, Illinois, 2014
Best of Drawing/Printmaking, Midwest Salute to the Arts, Fairview Heights, Illinois, 2014
2nd Place: Digital Art, Drawing/Pastel &Painting, Old Town Art Fair, Chicago, Illinois, 2014
Best of Show, Art in the Park, Highland, Illinois, 2013

selected publications

Manifest Gallery, INDA 8. Cincinnatti, Ohio: Manifest Press, 2014
The MacGuffin; Winter 2013. Livonia, Michigan: Schoolcraft College, 2013
BLUECANVAS; Fourteen. Los Angeles, California: Bluecanvas, Inc., 2012

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Artists' Own, Drawings in Ink, Lafayette, Indiana, 2013
Byrneboehm Gallery, Colluvium, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012

selected group shows

Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, West Michigan Area Show, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2015
Manifest Gallery, DRAWN, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2015
Manifest Gallery, Regional Showcase: Michigan, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2015
UICA, Festival of the Arts, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2014