Throughout the creation process, I discovered certain motifs  you will encounter in the work. Photo negatives have become the starting point for a majority of my work. After staging and taking a photo, this process allows me to flip the shadows and darkness into a surreal and otherworldly reflection. I use the negatives as a reference for my acrylic paintings, or digitally for photographs transforming deep shadows into brilliant light. This technique creates visual images that could not be seen by the natural eye, and seeks to express something beyond understanding. I use clothing as symbolism by either covering or leaving subjects bare and exposed. This often represents accepting an outside perspective, either through examination or by being given a different perspective to wear as one’s own. The mirrors in the collection are used to ask for something beyond the fourth wall of the piece. This beckons an outside perspective to be involved as a new identity is uncovered in the stalemate of where I am and where I long to be. 

Self-Portraiture is also a key part of my work. By using my own likeness in the work I offer myself up as a character on the stage of each piece. This allows you, the viewer, to witness the themes at play from an audience’s perspective. I’ve drawn back the curtain to let you witness a moment in time, or an emotion at play. In other parts of the work, self-portraiture is removed as if to place the viewer on this same stage in an experiential way.