Painting from a collection of inherited and thrifted items, I explore my connection to the lives lived around these objects and question my position in relation to their previous owners. I project my desire for familial connection onto the inanimate, envisioning a world where the lines between inheritance and appropriation are blurred and cherished heirlooms and their stories are handed down rather than imagined.

I employ a method of building up and wiping away oil paint which teases the subject into existence, creating ghosts which dwell between the surface and ground of the painting. 

The blue and white recalls decorative china and spurs in me a frenzied desire to gather, preserve and display; a fervor for accumulation I conceivably inherited from the very people whose possessions I have appropriated into my own archive of objects and memories.

As I continue to explore this collection of objects and how I wish to present them, I have begun employing a tight crop in order to remove context and introduce ambiguity. This serves to mimic the sense I feel when engaging with these objects; that I am not getting the whole picture.