artist's statement 

I am interested in America’s historical amnesia, its role in shaping Western ideologies, and its influence on cultural memory and the concept of “nationhood.” My work investigates traditional understandings of American narrative, conflict, and the West’s reliance on visual documentation to translate and relay history. My interdisciplinary practice is grounded in historical research and explores many forms of making, including oil painting, silverpoint drawing, cyanotype and more. I  use paper and textile both as tools and conceptual lynchpins — often mining things like old photographs, newspaper, quilts, or stitching samplers for content. I enjoy both the physicality and fragility of these objects, as they contain stories that still resonate as time passes, but risk losing nuance as context fades from collective memory and experience.

Using realism, trompe l'oeil, cutting, weaving, and other physical manipulations, I playfully engages my subjects as actual objects in an increasingly digital world. These manipulations ask questions more than provide answers — both de-historicizing and re-historizing. My work urges viewers to look carefully and critically at what emerges within the act of looking, gently teasing apart literal and metaphorical narrative threads.