Artist Statement
I’m fascinated by the way stories transform as they’re told and retold over time. Characters, themes, and even plot details can change exponentially with each retelling until many distinct versions of the same story exist simultaneously. With this series of paintings, I depict several sequential scenes of a completely made-up ‘dark fairy tale’, where each scene represents a branching evolution of the original story.
This intermixture of variant narratives is visually represented in my work through the differing styles and aesthetic choices of each painting, as well as through the apparent narrative inconsistencies between scenes. For example, one painting is formatted like a comic panel with speech bubbles and heavy outlines, while another is styled after illuminated manuscripts with its ‘gilded’ page borders and flattened figures. The recurring clown-like creature takes on several different forms, adopting a new appearance with every painting it inhabits. Each scene is represented with its own individual expression, yet each contribute to the same story of a young girl who travels to another world to save her kidnapped mother.
Before I begin painting, I compose bizarre digital collages using my extensive collection of photos with aesthetic and narrative potential. My goal with each collage is to create vignettes of uncanny moments with uniquely unsettling atmospheres. These jumbled arrangements of images act as the framework for my paintings, which inherit each collage’s vibrant colors, characterful imagery, and confusing compositions. My paintings begin as direct reproductions of their corresponding collages, but deviate to various degrees as they develop their own stylistic identity, much like how stories evolve as they absorb additional influences over time.
