Statement

 

My work is a merging of autistic vision and autistic experience in the form of acrylic paintings, crayon, and digital art. The vision encompasses a love of bright colors and simplistic style, an eye for patterns and small details. The experience involves a need to question society, authority, expectations, and shame. I want the beholders of my art to be transported into the complex and intense universe of my mind and emotions, to see my work and begin to examine the antiquated rules that ultimately hurt us all. 

 

Part of this challenge of society is embracing fun, laughter, and whimsy - bringing bright, vibrant color to a world that can otherwise be very drab. Why don’t houses look like they do in cartoons? Why don’t we play tag in the park anymore? Why don’t we make sound effects during our daily activities? I’ve found that, although part of adulthood can be intrinsically serious and boring, we have the power to transform our world into one of intensity and playfulness. This is the inspiration behind many of my works.

 

In tandem with my crusade for fun and silliness is a desire to explore the unjustly-designated taboo. This means sadness, grief, anger, trauma, culture, the body. In “It’s Nothing Shameful”, I put five tampons on a display stage as an antithesis to the unspoken rule that we hide periods at all costs. In “Silent Scream”, I immortalize my grief at the loss of a great love, the painting named for the pain that I endured and the pressure I felt to hold it inside. In “Ugh”, my first still life, I capture a very common experience in the Black community while also largely referencing the lack of commercial products that take us into consideration. These works embody acknowledgement of the hidden injustices of our society while also being colorful and lively.

 

And as I grow and change as an artist and as a person, I find that one thing comes before everything else. Love. It’s a vast and elusive concept that we struggle to define as humans, but we know it when we see it, when we feel it. I’ve seen very clearly what the absence of love can do and, in earth-shattering contrast, what its presence can do. All my art leads back to love. Love of the self, love of one another, love of life. It comes with an empathy for the pain that we all face, the traumas that we all carry, the mistakes that we all make. It’s why all the periods in my artist name are hearts. As a reminder to my supporters that love is part of my perspective, part of my being, and part of my art.