My paintings of adolescent girls and young women play on feminine and Romantic notions such as the peril of curiosity, the potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence. I approach my subjects as a puppeteer. Carefully positioned, their narrative is set in a meticulously designed world of vanity, beauty, and abundant pattern that evokes a carefully designed stage more than it does the happenstance of real life. The resulting paintings tempt us with their indulgent beauty while toying with our compulsion to both deconstruct and idolize feminine tropes and archetypes.
Many people mistake these works for digital art or collage, but they are paintings, and all on one surface. Everything is hand-painted but the wall and floor patters, which I screen print directly onto the paintings as a last step.
