Were you an artistic child?
Super artistic. I have a photo of myself doing abstract finger painting with a very serious face that my mom sent me when I decided to return to art school. I was always the one people came to for anything creative whether that was making a homecoming float or redesigning a room.
Does growing up in California still have a strong influence on your work?
To me, the landscapes are a bit more isolated. They could be any place really, but the use of light and colors used speak to the nature of Southern California. Growing up here means so many things, but for this particular body of work I focused on capturing the spirit of L.A. by layering fantasy and reality. Not just the glamour of Hollywood but the essence of ordinary, everyday scenes and routine.
Do you see yourself as a kind of activist, or leave that up to the interpretation of the viewer?
I’d say that I’m observing and cataloging what I see of the world in my own specific way. My work isn’t about impact control or pushing people to be biodegradable. It’s seeing L.A. in the way that I do, someone that grew up here, that loves it here, that thinks about climate change.
You primarily work with oil painting, but also incorporate screen printing, video, and sculpture into your artistic practice. How does it all come together?
I’m interested in what my hand can do with classic oil painting techniques, but love what happens to those works when I incorporate silk printing and other methods. How I treat the silk screen influences how the imprints look when they get to the canvas, but I have little control over the finished product. Layering paint with the element of chance does something visually and conceptually interesting. It creates a layer for presenting information and also feeling. What does this beautiful sunset make you feel? How does that change when it’s interrupted by a story you can’t read that also doesn’t seem like good news?
Do you come up often in your art, or is it vacant of the self?
I think I’m there in terms of my perspective. One of my pieces, which incorporates painting, video and sculpture, is inspired by all the construction sites in LA. I feel like there’s a difference between walking in a city and driving through it. I try to capture what it’s like to walk in a city, a major place on a map, especially those small daily changes that often go unnoticed.