My two worlds recently collided at 37 S Wabash Avenue. For the past ten months, the Sharp building on the SAIC campus has been my home. I work on the 8th floor as the Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis for the School. My studio is on the 2nd floor, Sharp 239, and I am a student in the Post Bacc program in Painting & Drawing. My paintings are both structured and rebellious, an honest reflection of my double life.
Turn Back Time, 2025, Acrylic and pencil on paper, 17 x 14 in.
Sienna, 2025, Oil stick on panel, 12 x 9 in.
Conscious Photon, 2025, Acrylic, pencil, oil pastel and fiber paste on panel, 12 x 9 in.
Fighting the System, 2025, Acrylic and graphite crayon on paper, 17 x 14 in.
Restless, 2025, Acrylic and neocolor crayon on Yupo paper, 80 x 60 in.
The walls in my second floor studio are covered in paintings that proliferate like wildfire. I throw my body into the work and intentionally paint past the edges of the surface. There is no plan. I like to break the rules, throw everything on there, and somehow it works. I’m a dare devil. I’ll ruin a perfectly good painting for the ever-so-small chance to get a better one. I prefer to paint on paper pinned to the wall for that overly casual rebellious vibe. I go for awkward color palettes and I like my paintings messy. I delight in outcomes that are unfinished, off-kilter, slightly quirky and unpredictable. I’m greedy for the widest range possible in my work in terms of color, scale, shapes and marks.
At the same time, there is an inherent structure to my work. I often employ the grid as a way to organize the chaos. Sometimes I bust out of the grid, deconstruct it, or rebuild it. The rules, norms and formalities in the paintings arise naturally. I’m drawn to geometric shapes that relay traces of mathematics and remnants of the city architecture that surrounds me. The analytical part of me inherently gravitates to logic, control and order. It comes from my Finance background where everything is calculated, organized and planned. This structure forms the underpinning to my work allowing me to paint with reckless abandon. I’m interested in exploring this tension and unexpected integration between these two contrasting parts of me.