Artist Statement

         My art grounds me to my surroundings. As someone still learning to cope with anxiety and bouts of sadness, I tend to dwell on the past. Thinking back to "simple times" yet no time is ever simple. Creating is a place where I examine my surroundings within a surreal, cartoon and realistic space. My art needs to pull a sense of joy while retaining parts of chaos in the everyday to shed light towards the future. It holds optimism in representing daily objects and experiences with simple palettes of vibrant complementary colors or gray tones. Loneliness turns the mundane into interactive figures and compositions. The figures hold smiles or gazes of hope to cheer me on. The compositions reflect my inner monologue struggling to find self-worth. Colored pencil is my preferred medium. Its adaptability to layering, blending, along with its lively colors allow for vivid drawings with great detail. I enjoy traditional graphite drawing along with Micron pen as well, to intensify graphic and cartoon looks for emphasizing serious tones. My work always starts with an idea generated in my head from seeing things pass by in my day-to-day life. The stronger my emotional reaction to what object or experience I have encountered, the more unusual the work becomes. I sketch, mostly to scale, several versions of my ideas before putting them onto the final paper. From there, I go to work with colored pencils, my graphite set, or pens until I feel I have captured the anxious, saddened emotions in a twist of hopefulness inspiring a brighter future ahead.