I make paintings, drawings and object that slyly address the trajectory of our cultural norms. Through illusion, formalism, and material I reframe perception to broadly reflect on the devolution of the middle-class and amend perceptions of the American Dream; an illusion of wealth and/or opportunity. Capitalism fuels greed; Scams, pyramid, and get-rich-quick schemes are rampant in an economy wherein the mark of success is accumulation. Growing up in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, makes these dynamics more difficult to recognize at face value as simulacrum is everywhere in plain sight. From almost anywhere I roamed in LA, the skyline was shared by both the Griffith Park Observatory and the Hollywood Sign. Both pinnacle icons for show-biz, yet ironically one deals in science and the other in fabrication. Existing for different objectives, they both rely on optics and perception. Borrowing from both high and low culture, sometimes innocuously, even humorously, my work forms dialogues about where our perspectives, practices, and values are shifting.
The walls and ceilings of our homes are vessels of safety often representing themes of vanity and entitlement. Simultaneously, these representations challenge craft and history in the wake of a DIY revolution and a Culture of Casualness--- A culture where we can appear healthy and fit with our yoga pants and Fitbits regardless of our actual lifestyle; a culture where “Reality TV” is written, staged, and produced; a culture where anyone can purchase a Ralph Lauren faux finish kit from Home Depot and have the appearance of wealth at little cost; a culture of entitled perception and disposability? The ability that technology has given us to “self-curate” comes at the expense of craft in the wake of a Do It Yourself Revolution— a revolution of de-skilling since the concept of learning a trade was sold to the public as being less valuable than the university experience and a line on your CV with a university pedigree. How do we return to skills and crafts when we work in a Gig Economy, with many people forced to freelance multiple jobs at once to make ends meet? How can craft, once equally yoked between labor and experience, have a renaissance when it now relies on YouTube tutorials, a concept which in itself is exponentially celebrated and embedded into our economy through online sales platforms such as Etsy adding to the vacuum of our Gig Economy.
My work eqally contains imagery and processes of labor, craft, consumption, and their disposability. Within the paintings there is irony in the use of materials and their practice, clashing in value and skill--- Linen is exposed, pointing to fine art’s hierarchy of surfaces, while paradoxically dismissing the craft of faux painting. These faux painted wall and ceilings point to the realities and frictions of commodities, class, and access. The active dismissal of labor highlights passive entitlement and ownership of space, objects, and their control. The sculptures explore generic objects that are reconfigured through scale, shape or manipulation to highlight big business branding and their influence over society. In a world obsessed with the delusion of living forever, the manufacturing and consumption of the fake, temporary, and disposable exemplifies our desire for control over the natural world and the futility of that desire.
