I’ve always been interested in the illusions waiting behind the curtains. Influenced by stories and other forms of entertainment, I take personally symbolic characters and remove them from the context of their story. I make a new story for the characters to live in and translate their given persona onto paper. I imagine the character outside the limitations of the narrative confines.

For example, i’m inspired by the idea of bullfighting. Locked in isolation, then systematically gored with lances, the bull is weakened before ever stepping foot in the ring. The manipulation of the spectacle proves the power the matador wields is illusory. Without the mystic of a performance, his glorious victory over the bull rings hollow. When I approach this performance in drawings, I put the bull back in the ring, and give him a second act. The matador will have to face the true strength of his competition.

I combine layers of charcoal, acrylic paint and oil pastels on fragmented paper; testing its endurance and challenging its fragility. Another inspiration of mine are dancers. The ballerinas we see on stage possess an ethereal beauty as they effortlessly dance across the stage. I like to imagine a ballerina slouching in her chair as she pulls off her size 9.5 Capezio’s and inspects her callused feet. Imagining the hard work and dedication behind the performance makes her determination and endurance a greater inspiration. Being that performance was always a large part of my life and continues to be through Aerial Silks, I tend to find inspiration through different forms of entertainment and spectacles.

Recently I’ve renewed my love for realism. I like to challenge myself to depict a image as accurately as possible. The meticulous focus needed, while sometimes torturous, is apparently cathartic to me. As opposed to my visual narratives that can go in frustratingly infinite directions, recreating an image as closely as possible grounds me. This juxtaposition of control and chaos has been a constant theme in my work. Just as in life; sometimes you feel a desperate need to have control and other times all you want is to relinquish it. Justice, and at times vengeance, is an on-going inspiration to me. I like to find opportunities to flip power dynamics. Make the oppressor the oppressed, give the manipulated clarity, and find justice where I feel its lacking.