Color has always been a fundamental part of my painting. A sort of chaotic anxiety. I think this is something that is carried throughout my work. But recently I have found in the black and white range a small refuge where I feel more comfortable. I feel that abandoning colour is a method of taming that frantic energy and is driving my work forward in different interesting ways. But I think eventually I should lean into it from both ends. I want to play with anxiety and precariousness in my practice - especially through tagging.
The idea of ego is often used to dismiss the act of tagging, but art is super egotistical and to play with an assertion of that element of ego is important. Tagging is a push back against structures that affirm and deny access, in the same way that people are denied access to public spaces there is a denial of entry into elite artistic realms. The use of the ``crown´´ as a compositional element in my paintings is in response to this, but it also functions as a tag or object that is part of my visual language. I use the “crown” to make comments regarding spaces - drawing attention to something fraught or simply making a funny comment. I embrace that act as one of 'vandalism.' I want to harness some of the wit and urgency already pushing up underneath my paintings. I believe embracing the anxiety generated by that urgent act of vandalism could be formative for my voice as a painter and moving forward and evolving as an artist.
