Acrylic Paintings
Warped Reality Series
This series is about my relationship with my body image, and how it connects to the female experience. The work depicts not feeling at home within one’s body and the struggle of comparison to idealized bodies. My work is inspired by several artists including Jenny Saville and Solomon Kammer. The mirrors in my work are important, they are a reflection of how we see ourselves, but sometimes this is a distorted, warped reality. The mirror is essential to one’s experience with body image, as it is used to compare, analyze, and distort versions of ourselves. My use of embroidery symbolizes my attempt to repair my relationship with my own body. Tracy Emin has said that embroidery is a medium of personal life, and it is used to show how the personal is universal. This statement resonated with me, and I hope that women will be able to see themselves within my work, and know they are not alone with their own body image struggles.
Zuele
Zuele was a golden howler monkey who passed away in January 2019 at the age of 32. I created this painting for a project connected with the Connecticut Beardsley Zoo and the Research, Internships, and Zoo Education (RIZE) program at Fairfield University. The goal of this project was to raise awareness about animal conservation through art.
Howler monkeys are generally somber animals, but Zuele was different. She was incredibly social. She formed an immediate bond with everyone she met, and she will be greatly missed. Zuele loved interacting with people, when she had visitors she would come right up to them and even sometimes put her hand up to the glass of her enclosure. The first time she put her hand upon the glass when I was with her was very touching. I chose to paint her doing just that. It is the way that so many people remember her.