Artist Statement

The work in this exhibition explores distorted perceptions of time, memory, and aging, all set against the absurd backdrop of modern life…but in a fun way, I promise! The title is borrowed from a post-modern novel by Lance Olsen that masquerades as an  exhibition catalogue for a retrospective of work by a fictional artist. Confusing, right? Both the title and the novel itself proceed down a familiar path before pivoting unexpectedly, leaving the reader questioning what’s real and what’s imagined. My work follows a similarly unpredictable path where the characters often begin as archetypes, only to be disrupted and transformed into something unexpected. It’s like you’re watching scenes from a movie playing out in a parallel universe, yet somehow it feels more authentic than reality itself.

My paintings fragment moments–rearranging, layering and interweaving them into new realities that reach beyond my current experience and reflect something truer than linear time. I like to imagine my future self looking back at the present. I also find comfort reflecting on darker times that have already passed. These moments are like emotional time travel, taking the pressure off of the present. I love to explore the the increasingly blurry line between imagination and reality, and how it shapes our perceptions. This curiosity fuels my exploration of universal themes through narrative, texture and pattern. My use of sacred geometry–particularly patterns found in Islamic art–provides a grounding counterbalance to the fluidity of space, time and perception illustrated in my paintings. These structured patterns, observable in the cosmos and the natural world, act as an armature, holding the work together.

This search for balance is something I return to again and again, both in my life and in my work. We live in a time full of contradictions: crisis and comfort, hyperconnection and isolation, too much information and too little clarity. My paintings try to hold all of these dichotomies at once, creating visual harmony from the noise. At its core, this exhibition is about presence and absence–how memory, imagination and the strange elasticity of time shape who we are. It’s an attempt at trying to make sense of life’s beautiful weirdness and if it all feels a little strange, that’s ok. So does being alive.