Revolving around events such as a car crash or the death of a loved one, my paintings are orchestrations of memories that have been fractured or reimagined in processes surrounding lived trauma. While the figures are frequently depicted in a state of bodily transit that parallels my own experiences with immigration at a young age, various histories of loss and displacement coexist in the space of my work.
My practice is invested in exploring how traditional techniques like oil painting and drawing can shift material forms in order to hold complex individual and collective histories. The figures in my work are people, or amalgamations of people, from my own life. Various idiosyncratic symbols, including severed body parts, paper boats, pointing hands, smoke, and a resting lion recur throughout the works. This growing lexicon of motifs highlights the preeminence of psychic reality in the paintings, echoing my own desire to give shape to that which is ineffable. I work iteratively and associatively to develop form and content, taking cues from psychoanalysis. The resulting works are investigative allegories exploring individual and shared experiences like grief, assimilation, and exile.
Several processes are essential to the way I construct images. Writings, works on paper, and individual paintings are made to inform and supplement larger works. Mural-sized figurative paintings formed gradually by gluing fragments of painted canvas are a primary part of my practice. This method of making releases images from the confines of a frame, allowing a state of constant renewal where edges are never fixed. In addition to various modes of paint application, the additive process of collage enables me to physically reconstruct and expand narratives. Ultimately, the use of different mediums reflects a practice intent on finding ways to achieve nuance and specificity in the stories it engages.
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