MFA Thesis: Upcoming 2024
Painting is a time-based media. I use multiple images, and video as reference material that I collage together for individual paintings. Through this process of creating a still image, time is compressed for the viewer to project a cogent narrative onto an individual frame. By showing the different layers of the painting process, I hope to examine the ephemerality of experience. The conversation between myself and these processes is vital for my work to communicate contemporary fatalistic fears, memories, hauntings, and reasons for sticking around despite impending annihilation.
As a boy, I was taught to think about the future and forget the past. This has left me with gaps in my memory that are filled with dread. By building out my memories to include seemingly insignificant lengths of time, life has become more meaningful. The act of painting is an attempt to hold on to memories and appreciate the time I have with my chosen family. This introspection drives me towards sentimentality and nostalgia which recontextualizes my masculine identity. The paintings themselves are reminders that time is moving forward, so I must value today and remember the past.