Emotion enters as first and foremost in my work. In acrylic, ink, latex and airbrus , I render images of a romanticized life–  one made better through temporal distance juxtaposed by emotional closeness. This romanticization can be understood as a nostalgia for my early life reproduced as mental snapshots taken in the present. While the memories I portray are precious, the decisions I make in my studio are not.

I refer to this anecdote when I step into my studio: “It’s like climbing a tall ladder with only a few rungs: you need to take out the rungs below and move them above you if you want to go higher." This came from a mentor of mine, and it rests at the core of my artistic praxis. The rungs are decisions you make in your process, you only get to keep so many. As an artist—and person—you mustn't bind yourself to every decision, but instead remain liquid, open to pivoting, changing. 

This stance challenges my artistic vision that sits so deeply in nostalgia, in a “holding onto” of something. This creates a constant internal argument in the back of my mind: "but I made the choice to do this; the entirety of this piece is premised on this stroke, this color, this expression. I’d lose too much by removing it.” But what I’ve learned is that you lose more opportunity with every constraint you create and give yourself.