ARTIST STATEMENT

I am interested in exploring emotion, especially those surrounding death. We all experience loss, and we all have to come to terms with our own mortality. My work immortalizes my own experiences of these emotions and conveys a universal understanding of that feeling. I utilize the imagery of birds frequently, both dead and alive. There is something foreign but familiar about them. Their ability to take flight, their autonomy, is what makes them so special. Seeing that stripped away is harrowing. 

I mesh the imagery of dead birds with flowers that represent grief or death. There are countless variations within the language of flowers that convey these emotions. There is a certain irony in that something so beautiful could represent something so dreadful. This is another aspect of my work – finding beauty in death, in all these terrible emotions. Finding ways to cope.