Artist's Statement
Born to a family of artists, clairvoyants and political malcontents, my lineage has informed and impacted various aspects of my life and art. By turns a professional tarot reader, front-line activist, founder of Riot Grrrl, and mental health peer support counselor, my artwork is, unsurprisingly, about navigation of challenge, difficulty and the in-between.
I derive additional inspiration from the Victorian era's distinct obsessions with mysticism, botany, and death; the attraction / repulsion contradiction inherent in the erotic writings of Surrealist philosopher Georges Bataille; writer Joan Didion's renderings of frailty paired with strength; all things that are both humorous and macabre; and my own mixed ancestry, the tendrils of which snake through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It is the overlap of such seemingly disparate sources that proves endlessly fascinating to me and is a primary motivator in my process.
Humans are breakable, vulnerable beings, capable by turns of causing great harm, making grand mistakes or achieving incredible and heroic feats. I see my art and my practice in line with a history of artists that have explored the potentials inherent in the human experience, for better or worse.