Influences
I have studied the vocations of Sofonisba Anguissola and Mary Cassatt and examined how women’s work has been historically confined to anonymous still life and flower painting. The series, 'Day by Day, Good Day', by Peter Dreher and On Kawara’s 'Date Paintings' have led me to ponder how recording the subtleties of everyday life produces a diaristic account of the endless variability of human experience. Inspired by Mary Vaux Walcott and Karl Blossfeldt, I have also researched scientific illustrations and methods of recording plant matter.
Artist Statement
Through a drawing and painting practice of mimetic renderings, my work addresses illusive moments of everyday experience based on observational study. These compositions are coded translations and abstractions that question the neutrality of the explicitly representational. I have scrutinized the canon of painting and the contemporary relevance of maintaining my anthropologically driven discipline during a period of collective social solitude and climate crisis.
Diary of earthly things
This is a selection of work from my undergraduate thesis. Rooted in formalism, this series demonstrates how a system of notation, employing ritual, can depict a moment that is monumental yet unglorified. Referring to the genre of still life and trompe-l’oeil, these watercolours are descriptive and diaristic. A testimony to the lived experience, painting from life produces nuance and ambiguity which challenges the search for truth, and any notion of realism. A group of these compositions were exhibited at Casa in Lethbridge from November 2021 to January 2022.