Uncharted Waters.

I believe in having a strong connection to my artwork and using my ability to create as a form of my own art therapy. This series represents a deeper view of the relationship between myself and my own personal relationship, experiences, and memories. The main focus of this most recent collection focuses on the relationship I have with my fiancé and what I experience while he is away in the Navy. It is difficult to express the difference between a genuine thought or feeling and one that is a false pretense. This series compares these two concepts of the actual negative emotions that I feel during this separation and the positive face that I put on for everyone to see. Through this series I invite the viewer to take a closer look at these uncharted waters.

I chose to represent this emotional conflict using my own likeness because of the deeply personal inspiration at its roots. My use of layered washes of acrylic was inspired by artists like Eric Blum with his alternating, translucent layers of medium. This technique created the soft, slightly stylized impression in my artwork. The use of varied shades of blue and black in my collection was inspired by the early works of Gottfried Helnwein in his series The Innocents. His portraits use a unique harsh lighting that gives the subjects a dark and eerie feel. I chose to use this quality in my own series allowing the light to create an eminence of mysteriousness and even sadness through the high contrast of dark and light elements. This series as a whole, including images portraying realistic representations as well as more expressive concepts, are all grounded within my own personal experiences within my relationship and daily life.