Grasping Mortality

My paintings are influenced by my own bodily awareness and how trauma affects the internal and external body. Our skin acts as a record of trauma for the traces left behind. In its fragility, it’s the most outward part of being a human that connects all of our own mortality. I seek to find the beauty in those traces and create aesthetically pleasing, lush and seductive paintings. Deep crimsons and magenta stain the soft blushes of pink and beige. Oil paint allows for a subtle yet juicy and haptic application onto the surface of the canvas and organza. The gross nature of the images I paint from is remedied by the jewel-like palette in order to create a more alluring experience. In some works the subject is further mediated and becomes an even more abstract trace of what it once was, like a wound leaving the skin to become just a scar.

Flesh binds our internal physicality; keeping it from pouring into our external spaces, but is one of the most fragile parts of being human. The flesh in my paintings capture the ephemerality of wounds in their most beautiful and open state and the susceptibility of the body to damage and death. They are recordings of an event and are the visual antidote to the real damage on the body. These paintings invite viewers to have a contemplative experience of their own wounds and mortality. My work offers the viewer to question why we, as a society are so off-put by death and bodily trauma and helps us find the beauty in our own mortality. My work allows for a sensorial and empathetic experience for others to evaluate and commiserate with their own bodies and the fragility and fear of death we share.