Studio Notes: Artist Statement: 2013

My current work explores the ideals, pitfalls and mythological aspects of “The American Dream.” I aim to use my historical perspective in coming of age with the internet to apply and comment on the unraveling results of 20th century developments in American politics, commerce and social life. My process is appropriation-based wherein I collect and archive digital and traditional print media to generate collage work in physical and digital formats. The source images and texts are recycled, filtered and re-constructed into narratives and given new contextual frameworks and considerations. This body of work is the result of manipulated imagery that is magnified and enlarged into paintings and drawings. The labor process provides time and meditative freedom to engage the content. The new images attempt to use humor and surrealist devices to internalize the effects of middle-late capitalism and its role in what we believe our individual dreams should or should not contain. I view the process as a playful means of repossessing large pervasive issues for the self.