I want to express what is real in my imagination. This is something that feels composed and balanced even as, with a smile, it upends its own logic. I am a Romantic because Romanticism recognizes chaos and decay, depending on both for its existence. I am pragmatic in that I have good small motor coordination. It was just a gift, and I decided to work with it. This is where I start.
Recently, my sister and I took on the task of excavating sixteen banker’s boxes of our grandmother’s pictures, albums, trip journals and letters. CIA-style files on each of us filled one box, each of our names printed clearly on a file divider. The theme we conjured from the objects was a constant desire to chronicle life, to create a meaningful story out of the chaotic cards we have been handed down through the generations.
Through my work, I hope to live a life that is picturesque: a life that is just so. The picturesque resides in the way one recounts the adventure. It is flower petals and plastic shopping bags, ripe apricots and text messages. It is the city and the country, and all the wasted suburban and exurban landscapes in between. The important thing is to be rigorous with thinking, leave room for revelation and edit boldly so the truth comes out.