ARTIST STATEMENT

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My primary interest is in Abstract Art and exploring how the intersection of different planes and line shapes can create illusions within distorted shapes, letters, and words. My work varies in size, from sculptures, and prints to paintings ranging from very small (3” x 3”) to huge (12 feet x 15 feet). My artistic style has been strongly influenced by Kandinsky, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Rodin, Moore, Dubuffet, DeFeo, Frank Stella, and many other artists. I prefer to work on the floor or flat surfaces. This enables me to view the piece from every angle. This helps me create multiple perspectives in the work, giving the audience multiple directions to view my work.

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I use many printmaking techniques in my work, including etching, aquatint, drypoint, woodcut, linocut, plexiglass, and collagraph. In my mixed media pieces, I use oil paints, charcoal, pastels, acrylic paint, and watercolor. I also have some periods where I will do still-life projects in pencil and charcoal. Some of my work includes recycled materials such as wood, flower petals, leaves, metal, textiles, plaster, and resin glass. Photography is an important part of my process, I use photos to document my work in progress and to remember new techniques. This allows me to see the evolution of the piece. I sometimes use my photographs as a starter for other projects. For example, the photograph of a work in process can become a finished photograph work in itself. Another vital part of my creative process is music. I introduce lines that follow a particular rhythm, and the music is chosen depending on my feelings in regard to the story of the person that I am depicting in the artwork.

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Layering is an intrinsic element in my work. My work evolves through each new layer of lines and geometric techniques. Each layer represents a time change in someone’s life; a section of their story. The more intricate the layer the more complex the person. These layers depict the events they went through and the resulting change in their life, personality, and soul. For example, a work’s first layer is like a baby that is untouched and pure, but as the layers build it represents this child becoming an adult and the good or bad events that have shaped his life. These layers represent aspects of abuse, abuse survivors but also some of those that unfortunately did not survive.

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My work is primarily made to represent the general concept of abuse and survival. But more in detail each composition represents a singular person who survived a type of abuse and others who didn’t. Showing how beautiful they are. It is important to show that each composition is a unique one because each person is unique and goes through a unique trauma. I explore abstraction through a variety of media to shed light on abuse survivors. When injustices occur we should also represent it. Multiple perspectives, layering, and symbols are used to represent the changes in those who experience abuse. The consequences they pay with ADHD, PTSD, dyslexia, fibromyalgia, dissociation, and other disabilities are for sure consequences of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Symbols such as the destructive act of tearing or scratching my prints design that mimic jail bars, feathers that represent bleeding wounds, and the layering of the different colors.

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By addressing sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and the relative consequences through my art, I strive to make people more aware of this taboo, so that they can better understand and talk about it. This is significant because you cannot identify and stop abuse or overcome this trauma unless you talk about it. For those who didn’t make it, my work is there to remember them and to denounce the injustices that they paid with their lives.

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