STATEMENT OF WORK

My work explores the mundane, navigating the intersection of wonderment and apathy of standardized mass production lines.  Through closely observed paintings and drawings of utilitarian objects like packaging material and blueberry cartons, I transform particular disposable plastic inner containers into monumental, ominous, yet placid entities.  I focus on commonplace images of refuse to reach complexity within the everyday.  Out of this straightforwardness, a subjective aliveness occurs in an inanimate object.  When cutting through the monotony and ubiquity of mass-produced “throw-away” items removed from their original context, a hyper-focus on the form, the structure, and the unique construction of each individual object subsists. 

In painting, I challenge the perceived value, or insignificance, of inanimate objects within the historical context of still-life painting.  Through unique scale shifts and size variations, these minuscule, recessed spaces, protruding corners, and plains of cardboard and plastic become cliff edges, walls, inner chasms, and antechambers; and are treated as expansive architectural landscapes.  A sense of familiarity gives body and emotion to these inert objects, where one is enticed but uncertain of what specific fruit, vegetable, or piece of technology was once held within these protective packages; outer armor.  These seemingly ephemeral items transcend their disposable nature and their initial meaning; temples of cardboard that, despite their insubstantiality, stand as enduring monuments of our time.