Artist Statement

I grew up in a town without a stoplight, in a log home surrounded by wilderness. As a child, I often climbed trees or scaled the roof our home, drawn to the stillness and expanded view it offered. There was a quiet clarity up there - an elevated pause above the woods, where I could see farther and breathe more freely. That feeling lingers in my work: the desire to gain perspective amid complexity, to glimpse beyond what surrounds us. It reminds me now of Bilbo’s brief escape to the treetops in Mirkwood - a momentary opening in an otherwise unrelenting forest.

My pieces craft imagined worlds where the natural intersects with memory, instinct, and myth. At the center of these landscapes are animals — primarily birds of prey — rendered in charcoal and oil. These materials allow me to create spaces that feel suspended in time, simultaneously observed and imagined.

Their presence reflects both personal reverence and broader ecological unease. Much of my reference material comes from 'On the Wing,'   a raptor rehabilitation and education center whose mission focuses on healing and public engagement. These birds become more than subjects; they are living emissaries of imbalance, endurance, and the intricate tether between human and wild.

Through my compositions, I seek to re-situate them - not as displaced or damaged, but as mythic figures returned to expansive, romanticized spaces. Here, they reclaim a sense of presence, dignity, and belonging.