ARTIST STATEMENT

In my spare time, I study natural disasters. I pore through books and websites, learning as much as I can about avalanches, hurricanes, floods, shipwrecks, etc. I am drawn to narratives about conflict and struggle; vulnerability and triumph; how people react in adverse circumstances and how their choices affect themselves, others, and ultimately the record of the event. When I'm not feeding that passion, I am virtually addicted to crime dramas (both real and fictional) on television, unable to turn away when an episode of "Law and Order" or "The Wire" is aired. These past-times directly influence the work that I make and reflect a lifetime fascination with the darker aspects of life.

My current work is about interpreting and personalizing these aspects of contemporary culture. Working primarily in watercolor, I borrow from appropriated photos of major disasters and catastrophes as well as images captured from films and television shows whose narratives deal with darker subjects such as violent crime or traumatic loss. By parsing these events and stories into drawn and painted snapshots and then displaying them in collective installations, I am creating a fluid catalog of history and legend as it happens, focusing on the line between truth and fiction and where it is blurred by individual experience.