statement

My drawings and paintings use light to describe desiccated organic forms emanating from a rich velvety darkness. They are an exploratory conversation into the imposed reality of the macroscopic world. A significant metamorphosis occurs when becoming encompassed with this work at an immersive scale; the transformation sometimes departing entirely from its original anatomy. Minuscule realities inspire me to find that which we overlook in order to venture somewhere unrecognizable, yet intriguingly familiar.

The floral forms become brilliantly grotesque when facing their mortality, yet they are forgotten and left to rot. There is beauty in the field of decay: existence continues after demise. A vivid luminosity emerges from the void of the shadows, as one last breath before being returned to the earth. The dried sunflowers pay homage to the natural order of the scientific world.

The greater part of my working methods and materials are founded in the use of charcoal. From the dried out floral series to the recent taxidermy works, a reductive/subtractive media technique is utilized to construct the pieces.

Charcoal is used to tone the surface of heavy weight paper and a series of erasers and charcoal layers begin to push and pull the surface to various values and levels of abstraction and representation. Water is used both directly on the surface charcoal and by way of crushed powder made into various ink values. The water also has a noticeable effect on color temperature which is used to push subtle warm - cool shifts in color relationships. The brightest values are paper white and are arrived at through a lesser toned ground and the use of electric erasers and sandpaper.

The paper is later mounted to canvas with gel medium, a large water bath and rollers, to provide an archival quality and to equalize the warping due to use of water earlier in the process. This extensive practice takes place after the work is largely complete and involves a tentative risk to the drawing.

bio

born: 1984, Northampton, Massachusetts

education

New York Academy of Art, MFA, 2011
University of Massachusetts Amherst, BFA, 2009
Greenfield Community College, AFA, 2007

selected awards/honors

Best in Show Financial Award, "Transformation is Timeless," Arno Maris Gallery, Westfield, Massachusetts, 2014
Corporate Commission, French fashion house CHANEL, 2012
Leipzig International Artist Residency, Leipzig, Germany, 2010
New York Academy of Art, Merit Scholarship, 2010

selected publications

Suzanne Volmer, Artscope Magazine, Review of "AFTER-LIFE at SEEN Gallery," May/June issue, 2015
Dean Nimmer, "Making Abstract Art," F + W Media, inc., 2014
Carley Dangona, "Exhibit showcases the beauty in death," The Reminder, 2013
Anna-Louise Rolland, "katalog LIA Traces," 2012

selected solo or two-person exhibits

"AFTER-LIFE," SEEN Gallery, Pawtucket, RI, 2015
"A Memory of Light," Paper City Studios Gallery, Holyoke MA, 2014
"Field of Decay," Westfield State University Downtown Gallery, Westfield, MA, 2013

selected group shows

PIER SIXTY, VISION, The Yai Gala 2014, Chelsea, New York, New York, 2014
SOTHEBY'S, 1334 York Avenue, TAKE HOME A NUDE, New York, New York, 2013 & 2014
Neue Leipziger Messe, Traces, Leipzig, Germany, 2012- 2013
Art Southampton Special Exhibition, Curated by Eric Fischl, New York, New York, 2013