Artist Statement
Through my body of work, I illustrate the tension between my black and white thinking and reality. In doing this I seek to bridge the gap between unhealthy ways of thinking and better avenues of coping. First, I need to speak about why I think in such a way.
Emotion has always colored my perception of everything, and in the process of growing up within an unstable emotional state, I began to categorize everything in “good” or “bad” boxes. Through art, I gained an understanding that not everything was distinct in its place, but that it was more subtle and diverse than just good or bad.
The works handle divinity in a way that is particular to my over glorification of other people, I see them as angelic and flawless, rather than the individuals they really are, people with outside stressors and problems like me. This aspect of Catholicism is calling back to my days at my Catholic high school, the imagery and purity of both the bible and everyone’s masks around me made me feel alone and helpless in the eyes of my peers. I still strive for this type of perfection though, which is detailed in the pieces of myself working/putting myself on a higher standard than anyone else.
My color schemes heavily depend on purple because of the duality of the color. It is somehow cold and warm at the same time, having more of a gradient of experiences and emotions rather than sticking to one. I also use yellow to its fullest extent to really hit home the constraints of my emotional worldview, yellow is usually used in one way to convey one thing, and that speaks to me as being simpler and even more childish than purple.
Combining these two colors is a combination of worldviews, having more of a gradient of experiences rather than just one way of thinking. Much like how my thinking cannot sustain itself in only one way of morality, yellow cannot exist in my portfolio without purple.
