My paintings question and make visible the relationships between physical reality and the mind. Through analysis of my own compulsions for perfection and order, and research into mental health, psychology, the physical properties of nature, and Western and Eastern philosophy, I seek a better understanding of the relationships between mind and matter and its presence in the world around us.
Over the last five years, I have researched mental health, hoarding disorder and OCD, and gone into the homes of people affected by these conditions. The knowledge gained through my interviews and the thousands of photographs I take during my visits, have become integral parts of my process. By creating artworks based on these spaces, I have come to perceive our physical surroundings as a manifestation of the psyche. My paintings are more than representations of people’s possessions, they are portraits of their minds.
I create different bodies of work based on these concepts and often title my works with the names of the individuals whose homes I have visited. My Hoard series is based on my field research in the homes of those affected by the disorder. Although these paintings are depictions of real environments, I stylistically transform these chaotic scenes into appealing and orderly still lives. Color plays an important role in this series. By using intense and seductive color I am able transform what appear to be piles of junk into beautiful formal compositions, mirroring the allure felt by the individual who collected them. My OCD and OCD Installation Series both explore compulsions in pursuit of perfect order and represent the idealized state sought after by the minds of those affected by organizational OCD. My Diagram paintings are accompanied by a blueprint for installation. These plans not only specify the parameters of a rectangle to be painted on the wall using particular mass-produced house paint colors such as Benjamin Moore, they also dictate the precise locations of the oil paintings to be hung within that rectangle.
My goal with this work is to actuate a visual language which represents the workings of the human mind. Although my paintings engage with aspects of realism, abstraction, and minimalism, the mental processes I depict require me to seek out a different set of visual archetypes. Blurring the lines between these genres, my work explores and makes visible the relationships between physical reality and the psyche.