Artist Statement
Through my work I prognosticate aspects of society’s future through ideas of spirituality, communication, and economics. Much of my drive is a need to make sense of changing perceptions of language and culture to deconstruct the rapid de-romanticizing of contemporary life in the recent information era of humanity. This is an effort to establish venerability and ceremony in everyday banalities in order to harmonize the seemingly contrary concepts of economy and spirituality. By illuminating the pitfalls of how, in a very general sense, contemporary culture is passively described as inherently counterproductive I strive to make viewers refocus on what the future truly means. It is the hope of possibilities that will always outweigh the forces that keep people and cultures in a stasis devoid of aspiration.
Much of my current work involves motifs derived from my shared Dena’ina heritage and language which are nearing practical extinction in this time period. I view my creative work as my life’s duty with the goal of proving that cultural preservation as we know it is not possible and recreation of its tangible facets is a futile exercise in endless grief chasing the shadows of the past. On the opposite side I also want to demonstrate that we all possess the miraculous gift of being able to paint the cultures of the future by embracing the raw inspirations and meanings hidden in the stories of our past and the cosmic knowledge of our ancient origins.
My practice includes traditional painting methods, sculptural assemblage, and 3D printing, however my medium of choice is ink and paper as they are materials which universally represent the thin line between the two schools of human visual expression: representational drawings and illustrations, and abstractions in the form of symbols and written language. Symbolically I imagine my body of work to be an infinite written language in which each piece represents a single letter or syllabic phrase that correlates to the personal spirit embedded within.
Much of my current work involves motifs derived from my shared Dena’ina heritage and language which are nearing practical extinction in this time period. I view my creative work as my life’s duty with the goal of proving that cultural preservation as we know it is not possible and recreation of its tangible facets is a futile exercise in endless grief chasing the shadows of the past. On the opposite side I also want to demonstrate that we all possess the miraculous gift of being able to paint the cultures of the future by embracing the raw inspirations and meanings hidden in the stories of our past and the cosmic knowledge of our ancient origins.
My practice includes traditional painting methods, sculptural assemblage, and 3D printing, however my medium of choice is ink and paper as they are materials which universally represent the thin line between the two schools of human visual expression: representational drawings and illustrations, and abstractions in the form of symbols and written language. Symbolically I imagine my body of work to be an infinite written language in which each piece represents a single letter or syllabic phrase that correlates to the personal spirit embedded within.