Artist Statement
So why do you make art?
Do you ever see the sunset and want to bathe in the light, literally step into a pool of sky and have every inch of your body, mind and soul drenched in color? Do you ever want to take a bite out of the rich dark chocolate earth? Do you ever want to drown in Prussian blue? So far, I have yet to step into the sky, eat dirt, or let my lungs fill with the ocean at midnight. The closest I have come is painting.
I have come to love my pallet for its kindness, its willingness to accept my admiration and its patience in teaching me. It can feel lonely when your best friends are colors, but at last they live in the world. We are all parasocial to something. You would be hard pressed to argue that Maggie Nelson is not parasocial to blue. She fully lusts after the color. Why, then should I deny myself the luxury of the litany of colors the world has to offer? They are so willing to let me use them as I would. They gather round my pallet, and they harmonize and clash together. My friends, my family, my home.
Is their love real? Maybe, maybe not, but is it any less real than the parasocial love from a podcast or an app? I can hold crimson, and it sees and echoes my blood. It is made by artisan hands with centuries of knowledge. They carefully crafted a new formula to remove the cancer causing chemicals while preserving the vivid fresh blood red. What a labor of love for me to now hold in my hands. Begging to be used. Just the two of us alone in the world, unobserved, unphotographed, non-judgmental. We exist as beings of physicality.
We’re not totally alone, my crimson and I, my curriculum and I, my vermillion and I. There are the aforementioned artisans who fostered this lovely pigment. There are the potential suitors who will love or hate or, even worse, find kitch my darling color. What lives on the canvas after we are done? At some point, I could have the honor of passing this painting on into willing and loving hands. Or perhaps my cruelty will grow with age and I will discard it when I have no room. It will find its own way in the world, covered up as a fresh canvas, discarded into a landfill, perhaps passed off to an unwilling, but good natured, relative. What will become of my beloved paint then, how could I create something I could treat so curly? It will be my lifeline then, others will see me as I was when we first met my colors and me. Perhaps they will find me unskilled, perhaps crafty, perhaps even kitsch, most likely pretentious. This artwork exists between who I am now and a promise of what I will show the world.
It is hard to know the path of your own mind. It can be even harder to share them. Art exists as a way of exploring your own inner world until you have drafted a map by which to tell others of yourself. Even if the map is not always available, the act of creating it has made you familiar with the territory. And you did not venture out alone, you had your companions with you. You had your pallet of friendly and bold colors. You had your authors who guided you. You have your music to keep you grounded. You are in the hands of a community of creatives who have all cast their line into the void begging to show the world their own maps. Even if there is no similarities in the terrain of our mental space, I guarantee any two creatives could connect on struggles and drives to articulate themselves.
Resume
Education
May 2021 - University of New Mexico – Art Studio Bachelors
May 2021 – University of New Mexico – Art History
Work Experience
January 2023 - Temporary research assistant Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
August 2022 - Current - Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
July 2021 - August 2022 - Tacoma Art Museum
July 2021 - October 2021 - Olympia Children's Museum
August 2020 – March 2021 – Painting and Drawing Studio Monitor UNM Art Department
October 2017 – March 2021 – UNM Art Museum Assistant
Exhibitions
2023 - Roots Coffee Shop
2021 - Guardian Monsters - Browsers Bookshop
2021 -The After Death - Lamplighters Gallery
2021 - First Contact - Mothership Alumni Gallery
2021 - New Horizons - Senior Capstone Exhibitions UNM
2021 - A Thinking Space - Albuquerque Open Space - Thesis Show
2020 – Sappho Display – UNM Art Building
2019 – Peaceful Mornings Display – UNM Art Building
2018 – Self Portrait Display – UNM Art Building
2018 - UNM Fine Art Library – Make-A-Wish Collaboration
Academic Achievement
2022-2023 Research Grant on Equity in Museums, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
2021- Summa Cum Laude, UNM
2021 - Designation in Honors, UNM
2020-2021 Gale Art Scholarship, UNM
2020-2021 Nathanial Moore Fine Arts Scholarship, UNM
2018-2020- UNM Deans List, UNM