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Artist Statement

My artistic work examines human relationships, specifically personal ones between myself and those closest to me, through the exploration of memory. By encasing personal remembrances in wax through encaustic processes, I hope to preserve these memories in an unchanging space. My practice, in many ways, is procedural as I attempt to create a “stable” memory that will withstand the corrosive nature of time. In this manner, I attempt to create a visual archive indexing personal lived human experiences.

The fear of forgetting is a central motivation of my practice. Since I was young, this fear has led me to regularly document stories of my everyday life as a way to remember them forever. Despite my best efforts, time is relentless and many of my memories have deteriorated over time. By searching for a moment of permanence in a world of impermanence, I am able to explore ideas of memory, time, and mortality.

I primarily use encaustic as the material offers a resilient durability. The physicality of the wax in my pieces takes on an important role of preservation. By encasing personal memories in wax, the drawings act like fossils trapped in sediment or insects trapped in tree resin. Within these unchanging spaces, the medium can contain glimpses of history in a permanent snapshot of time.

This body of work is titled A New Normal and is a collection of thoughts and anxieties relating to the last year. The disruption of normality due to the pandemic has fostered a drive toward physical isolation and emotional insulation. Responding to these changes, my works address fear, anxiety, and mortality through a collaboration of drawn memories and wax. The hardened wax displays evidence of “touch,” a controversial act amidst a pandemic. As the shift back to “normal” begins, A New Normal acts as a time capsule of a temporary, but inescapable, collective moment in our histories.