“During the winter of 2019 going into 2020, I started to fill sketchbooks with drawings of people with the intent of seeing how far I could push the threshold of what is recognizable and unrecognizable in my humanoid characters. My focus was on maximizing weirdness while also keeping the process and painterly elements of my work that I enjoy in my work. Body Forms is a colorful continuation of my black and white series from earlier this year titled “Creative Defenders” where I interpreted the beings living inside my head to ward off creative blocks.”

I am a self-taught painter and illustrator based in Hilliard. My painting style is ever-growing from the foundations of graffiti and street art, with artistic inspirations ranging from Basquiat and Picasso to Michaelangelo and medieval illustration. 

My approach to art is very self-fulfilling in that I embrace my thoughts and push my style to the limits with each new work I create. While some of the symbolism and the characters that I use in my work remain similar, I always look to create the next new combination with them. My process involves working quickly in my style in an effort to capture my thoughts, and I will come to a full stop when I reach a limit of comfortability. Though, I sometimes think that everything could be better. I try not to overwork my image, and sometimes I paint over it, embracing the thought that nothing is completely sacred.

My “character(s)” comes from my instinctive early musings of character development, but with the combination of my paint style. I never really enjoyed creating “recognizable” features on their faces. The character itself is a self-portrait-esque humanoid that I dump my emotional and mental struggles onto. The other extraneous symbols that reverberate throughout my work can be seen as compositional elements and quick actions that I use to create a sense of cohesiveness. Also, I simply love flowers.