What it Means to be (hu)Man

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The painting series Light Pilots cultivates a new visual language by utilizing and rearranging representational symbols deeply rooted in my past. The conversation started in 2020 as I began to examine how to heal ancestral wounds, while also addressing lifelong questions surrounding identity. Grief can leave us feeling like we are emotionally drifting, unable to process reality. The pilots represented in these canvases are put into a similar place of nothingness, exuding this deep sense of emptiness. Floating in this airless space, they are frozen in motion, yet trying to move forward¾a dichotomy integral to the human experience itself.

Traversing down creative roads with Robert Longo and Miriam Sweeney, these paintings are created with charcoal, acrylic, latex and aerosol paint. I use these materials to build up a myriad of layers, resulting in an atmosphere that feels thick and tangible. Through this deliberate process, I can push and pull the material values to make the figures recede while letting some of the details come forward.

The use of powerful light boldly contrasts the figures from the depths of their surroundings, celebrating the possibilities of breaking old cycles while creating new, positive paths. Interwoven into these scenes are paper airplanes that nod to childhood innocence and playful dreams. Standing in stark contrast to the tactical flight equipment shown in these images, these paper airplanes are at once naïve, yet also a profound outlet for survival through the lens of what can be imagined. All these divergent narratives allude to an ongoing search for new ways of healthy growth.