artist statement

 The concepts of memory, childhood, and dysfunction all seem to fascinate me. Some of my favorite films include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Place Beyond the Pines (2013), and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). I guess I like works that are able to illustrate a genuine representation of human emotion, in all of its complexity. In his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera writes, "The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful." Over time, I've found that films, music, and creative works in general, allow us to look at moments or emotions that we may have experienced or felt and evoke the poetic memory in it, some of which we may not have recognized as being such without viewing it from an external perspective.

I always have a really hard time trying to figure out what exactly it is I like and why so the process usually ends up becoming something like this:

I guess I'm kind of all over the place, and that's probably what will end up being reflected in my creative work at this point in my life. I like surrealist art, literature, things that make me laugh so hard I cry, soundtracks, and I'm pretty sure I can quote all of Austin Powers: Goldmember, though I really have no idea why.