Artist Statement

    I am a visual and movement based artist working primarily in oil paint and contemporary dance. Dancing is a way for me to express empathy and my faith in a visually stimulating format. My years of training in and experience with modern and contemporary dance inspired me to focus my painting on the dancer’s body. My practice portrays emotion in ways that create an empathetic connection between the viewer and artwork, as well as audience and performance. This concept drives my painting series and inspires me as a painter and a dancer. 
   I express my emotional struggles with anxiety in my dancing by pushing the body’s extensions to its limits. My training and years of practice have enabled me to release tension and connect with the audience through my movements. Dancers are expected to know each body part individually before being able to work with them all together as a whole. The lighting in my artwork is a dynamic way to communicate the process of becoming a dancer and the control needed to move in a strong, graceful way. 
   My paintings have a hyper-realistic style and are inspired by the structure of the dancer’s body and how it can be used to express oneself in a way that uses strength, balance, and awareness of oneself in space. When I paint, I experience what I am painting. I become the dancers in my painting, I feel the emotion shown in their faces, the burn in their muscles, the light on their bodies. The movements I paint reach out to the audience and bring them into the scene of the painting. My 2D works recreate experiences for others to live through. Creating art is an outlet to release my anxiety and a doorway for others to experience something from a new perspective. Making art is a way to challenge myself and others to think in a different way, to be open-minded and empathetic.