FRIENDSHIP WORSHIP

This series is my longest running body of work and will likely continue throughout my life. I began making portraits of friends after our family moved as a way to feel close to people I left behind. I found joy in this examination of friendship and it became fundamental to my practice. Through the years I’ve investigated different ways to engage in representation. My earlier work focused on material, and how different textures and colors represented personality. I’ve also moved through how spaces and objects around a person act as signifiers and basis for judgments - an activity that harkens back to early portraiture in which people posed with their possessions to signify status or occupation. I moved to using nudity with the intention to humanize, rather than sexualize the naked body.

I want to show the person who is left after being stripped of exterior indicators. Elements of humor and playfulness entangle with confrontational vulnerability. The whole practice has centralized on lending my perspective to the viewer and the subject. As a person who has often felt insecure in relationships, I’ve found making art of someone to be a grounding way to meditate on who that person is to me, the expectations I’ve put on them, and consider my role in their life and theirs in mine. It's a declaration of love, and granting of grace. It's about understanding that people can’t always be who they are in a piece of art, and letting them see what I see; a person worthy of the worship of making art. Art isn’t perfect, but it takes work, effort, time, patience and the result is hopefully something worthwhile.

Reclining Nudes
2019
Pencil on Paper
42" x 52"
Maia
2020
Pencil on Paper
32" x 42"
Family Portrait
2018
Pencil on Paper
42" x 56"
Roommate Love (Neil and Cody)
2017
Oil on Linen
36" x 48"
Katie and Camera
2018
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Steph with Wine
2018
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Jaya
2019
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Ingrid with Flowers 1
2018
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Ingrid with Flowers 2
2018
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Niel
2017
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Whitney
2017
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Whitney's Hands
2017
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Biz
2016
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Biz
2016
Oil on Linen
24" x 36"
Chimes with Plant
2017
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Chimes with Plants
2017
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Josie 1
2016
Oil on linen
24" x 30"
Josie 2
2016
Oil on Linen
24" x 30"
Josie
2016
Oil on Canvas
36" x 60"
Josie on my Bed
2016
Oil on Canvas
48" x 60"
Left hand Whitney
2015
Pen and Ink on Paper
Whitney and Billie
2015
Pen and Ink on Paper
Whit in our House
2015
Mixed Media on Paper
Jaya with Strawberries
2016
watercolor on watercolor paper
Josie Study
2016
watercolor on watercolor paper
Me
2013
Oil on Canvas
48" x 48"
Big Headed Emma
2013
Oil on Canvas
42" x 60"
Cuyler
2013
Oil on Canvas
48" x 72"
Jay with Flowers
2019
Colored Pencil on Paper
8" x 10"
Cam
2012
Pencil on paper
40" x 46"
Ari in her Element
2014
Pencil on Paper
24" x 42"
Whitney in her Element
2014
Pencil on Paper
42" x 63"
Biz in her element
2014
Pencil on Paper
42" x 63"
Yellow Dani (pt 1)
2013
Oil on Canvas
30" x 72"
Yellow Dani (pt 2)
2013
Oil on Canvas
30" x 72"
Whitney with Flamingos (pt 1)
2015
Colored Pencil on Paper
11" x 14"
Whitney with Flamingos (pt 2)
2015
Colored Pencil on Paper
11" x 14"
Camouflage Whitney
Oil on Canvas
2013