Proof of Life

Creating is a part of my DNA that I can't seem to deny. It began with creative parents who encouraged unstructured play and took me on inspiring outings. Growing up in New England, I was surrounded by antiques and history, which sparked my lifelong fascination with our interconnectedness through shared stories and heritage. This exploration of time and collective memory permeates my work, along with my deep love for nature and conservation.

I am perpetually drawn to the real world—the guy on the street holding a stack of ridiculously perched boxes, or household objects haphazardly placed on a luminously lit napkin. My eyes dance at the sight of these moments, and I have to put them down in paint.

In my work, I try to capture these fleeting moments in a dreamlike way, adding texture to the brushstrokes while maintaining a truth to the color, light, and interactions. It’s my way of documenting my time here. I've always loved oil paint, even if my studio is a bit tiny, because I love its texture—that feeling of pushing paint around the canvas. I admire the way masters like Sargent and Sorolla observed light with precision and worked with purpose.

Through my current work, I experiment with how to tell the story of a moment using a similar precision with abstraction, pushing realism to reflect the feeling of the moment. In my day-to-day life, I bookend my days with creative time in my studio. From 9 to 5, I work to communicate the importance of the arts for the North Carolina Arts Council as a content & social media manager.