My practice is an exploration of escapism through fantasy. Reflecting the desire to withdraw from social structures by roaming free in the desert or hiding among the mountains. Nature is identified as the antithesis of cultural expectation. Culture defines the limitations of our actions, discouraging prioritizing the self through social policing. We are all guilty of serving as societal agents, nudging each other back into place based on our ideology of choice. With the advent of pocket computers and the significant, inescapable role they play in our lives it’s nearly impossible to avoid this pressure. 

Escape is the act of breaking away, removing oneself from the current context. Collage takes a thing, breaks it free, and inserts it into something new. The object doesn’t lose its integrity, instead it establishes a new ownership over its identity. Identity is relational. Combining scraps of reality creates a new version of reality, where images take on new meaning as they respond to a new environment. When the environment requires less rigidity, it allows the thing to be free. Collage mimics daydreaming. We escape our current environment by imagining another world where everything, even forces of nature, act differently. Daydreams are expansive, lawless lands. 

Exploration has become an integral part of my practice. Traveling is the manifestation of curiosity. More and more my collages use photographs from personal adventures, creating assemblages of memories infused with a personal feeling of liberation. They call on times without cell reception and the need to curate an identity. Blending icebergs and sand dunes, suburban neighborhoods and coffee farms transforms singular realities into a magical, conflated existence. Free of expectation and social surveillance, one is free to meet themselves. Liberation allows for self actualization.

Collage is a means of creating finished artwork as well as a tool for composing paintings. Working from analogue and digital montages, I create large scale oil paintings and murals. The conceptual aspects of collage translate into surrealism through painting, furthering their dream-like quality. Painting pulls the work’s subjects even farther from the interconnected, limiting realities where they originated. As with most contemporary oil painting, my work challenges artistic tradition by allowing the viewer to feel equal to the subject.

Through editing and selective use of found imagery my work conveys nostalgia. In approaching escapism through imagination, my practice relies on child-like curiosity and play. Childhood is a time where societal pressure doesn’t exist and fear is whimsical. Where rattle snakes and quicksand are more concerning than weight or promiscuity. This nostalgia inspires a matte color palette, with split compliments and occasionally saturated focal points. Editing images into old photographs creates distance between the present and the work, just as painting further removes the images from reality. Questioning today’s culture contrasts this space, tethering the work to the earth. Ultimately, I seek to inspire curiosity by fostering a connection with the viewer, allowing them to envision a world they can escape to.