statement

I am a borderlander at heart. I live and work along the boundaries: visual, metaphorical, natural, and spiritual. But these boundaries, though they form the very structure of our society, are remarkably permeable; they have a habit of softening, of becoming tangled and overgrown. It is within this softening—an oscillation between familiar constraints and inexplicable presences—that I situate myself as an artist. It is a liminal place where our human impulse to judge and hierarchize is quieted, where a natural way of seeing floats quietly to the surface of our hyper-stimulated minds.

In the simplest possible sense, my work is an exploration of the boundary between light and dark. I address this literally, with image and execution, but also metaphorically: this work speaks of the known and the unknown, the seen and the unseen. Drawing is my primary methodology, as it is extraordinarily well suited to my conceptual pursuits; it echoes the distilled, elemental aspects of the images. Drawing is a medium in which every choice is evident, every mark present and accounted for. It is intimate, intuitive, and direct.

These works represent an exploration of an inner wilderness by way of an outer one; they hinge on my belief that the natural world is not only an inherent part of us as human beings (and we of it), but that it is the original, exquisitely sensitive mirror in which we find our own inner terrain and wildness reflected. My work has always been an act of reverence for the natural world. There is an element of science in it, in the desire to study and observe. But there is an element of spirit, too, in the continual reaching for something just beyond the visible. The natural world possesses a magic for me, one which I attempt to elicit by working within the bounds of realism as one might work within a poetic form, utilizing the formal constraints to evoke something beyond the boundary of those very limitations. I strive to carve out a compelling space in which those peripheral presences can stand forth—a space of quiet, of conscious co-existence with both the seen and the unseen.

bio

born: 1985, Littleton, Colorado

education

Colorado College, BA, 2007
Burren College of Art, Post-Baccalaureate, 2009
Laguna College of Art and Design, MFA, 2013

selected awards/honors

Finalist, Art Renewal Center International Salon Competition 2015
Artist Residency, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, New Mexico, 2014
Artist Residency, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado, 2013
Individual artist grant recipient, Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation inual artist grant recipient, 2012

selected publications

Art Renewal Center; International Salon Catalog, 2015
Manifest Gallery; International Drawing Annual 9 (INDA). Cincinnati, Ohio, 2015
Manifest Gallery; International Drawing Annual 8 (INDA). Cincinnati, Ohio, 2014
Post-Modern Times journal. Odenville, Alabama: Birmingham Free Press, 2013

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Bergamot Station, Afterglow, Santa Monica, California, 2015
Arena 1 Gallery, Instinct, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Santa Monica, California, 2013
Exhibit [A] Gallery, Nature | Nurture, Long Beach, California, 2012

selected group shows

Gallery on Forest, In Search of the Real, Laguna College of Art and Design Faculty Show, Laguna Beach, California, 2015
Gallery 1261, Inner Journey/Visual Experience, Denver, Colorado, 2014
Gallery 1261, Small Works, Denver, Colorado, 2014
Firehouse Art Center, Carbon: Elemental Experiences, Longmont, Colorado, 2013