My work contorts animacies of object and animal to render a space of coexisting contradictions. Blending languages of cartooning and eroticism, I question themes of sexuality, gender, representation and power within an anthropomorphic worldview. Forms and colors pulsate with exaggerated gesture, seducing the viewer into an ever-morphing space of hyper articulation. Candy-like colors cast an artificial hue to the fleshy, bulbous forms that stretch like a warm taffy pull. With a practice rooted in drawing, I “sculpt” with light to reveal forms situated between a space of abstraction and representation. I avoid using straight lines in my work to resist ideas of straightness, allowing me to formally and conceptually reject traditions of heteronormativity. My work depicts figures and spaces that are “queer” in that they exist somewhere before immediate recognition. This forces the viewer to negotiate a space between identification and uncertainty. Actions like probing, squeezing, licking and pressing signal a sexual, at times vulgar, energy indicative of early childhood discovery.
My process engages on both a material and surface level. Working on cold press watercolor paper, I penetrate the substrate itself with washes of color. I then layer with crayons and pencils, allowing color to accumulate as material on the surface. Composed of a close and intimate rendering technique and looser, wet-on-wet painting, this in-between process mirrors the hybridized subjects within my compositions. The coarse paper allows the images to retain a toothy, grainy texture that contrasts their more sinuous and curved physicalities. The colors I use are inspired by the vibrant and artificially hued cartoons of the late 90s and early 2000s that fueled my obsession with anthropomorphism. These shows allowed me to escape into realities not tethered to heteronormative or human-centric narratives. These visual and conceptual links merge together in my work as an uncanny sensorial displays.