Artist Statement

My work is inspired by my memories, experiences, and interactions with Chicago while growing up. This exposure to varying cultures, neighborhoods, and schools heavily impacts my background but also challenges me to wrestle with my own identity. The disjointness and separation that I feel now are extremely intriguing to me as I pinpoint these pockets of time and memory. They help me as the artist and others as viewers to reflect and react to each story.

The color palette that I choose is extremely intentional and is an aspect of my work that is highly noticeable. Each time and place to me holds a very unique emotion that can be translated in color. Oftentimes I find myself recoloring my linework over and over until I find something that fits. But it is in the environments and the addition of color and other surrealistic elements that truly capture these moments and turn them into something more than just “what was”. I see my artworks as almost drawing the bridge between the two worlds of then vs. now, reality vs. imagination, and identity vs. perception.