ARTIST STATEMENT
I am interested in exploring the empathetic potential of my perception through the act of creating art objects. I seek out the motif in my own environment and work from it directly, in order to allow myself to have a more immersive experience, one that allows me to engage in the open ended act of asking questions.
Asking questions is my primary mode of working. Throughout the act of making, I ask a wide range of questions, some of which are about the practical concerns I am facing, the materials I am using, the abstract design of my picture; but as I work, these questions give way to larger concerns. What does it mean to be here, to be looking, to be painting? What does it mean to be present? What does it mean to be alive? I make no claim to have answers, but I believe that in the act of asking, I am able to obliquely access some form of universal truth.
Through this process of posing questions and striving to be present, I work to imbue my pictures with the evidence of my own personal concerns. I strive to reveal the interior life of the motif. I explore the potential of place for emotive resonance. I incorporate the grand history of art making (as understood through the lens of my own aesthetic ambitions), using it as a precedent, encouragement, teacher and exemplar.
It is my belief that when I do these things successfully, I am able to make work that contains a record of the act of seeing, as well as the things seen; a trace of the universality of all human experience, as well as the specificity of my own personal experience. My belief (enforced by my own experience of truly great art) is that while art is a physical object, it has the ability to possess a transient, ephemeral life that transcends the parameters of the material and physical world.
As Edwin Dickinson once said, the purpose of art is to “move the spirit through the eye.” My work is an attempt to continue in that vein, with hopes of moving the spirits of others through the act of creating honest, humble, and hard won images.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
-
MFA, New York Studio School. New York, NY. (2024-Present)
Barnes-DeMazia Certificate, Barnes Foundation. Philadelphia, PA. (2023) -
Mount Gretna School of Art. Mount Gretna, PA. (2020)
-
BFA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2018-2022)
-
Art Student's League of New York. New York, NY. (Intermittent study, 2018-2020)
EXHIBITIONS
The Edible Landscape. Mt Gretna School of Art. Philadelphia, PA. (2022)
After Pierre Matisse. Beekman and Mitchell. Philadelphia, PA. (2022)
121st Annual Student Exhibition. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2022)
Emerging Artists Exhibition. Bob Jackson Galley, The Plastic Club. Philadelphia, PA. (2022)
Art From Art. The School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2021)
120th Annual Student Exhibition. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2021)
MGSoA Alumni Exhibition: Selected Small Works. Space Scribbles. Online. (2021)
Mt Gretna School of Art. Oxford Art Alliance. Oxford, PA. (2020)
Mt. Gretna School of Art Student Exhibition. Heights Community Center. Mt. Gretna, PA. (2020)
118th Annual Student Exhibition. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2019)
Translations. The School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2018)
The Student Concours. Art Student's League: The Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. New York, NY. (2018)
AWARDS
The Irma H. Cook Prize, The August Cook Prize, and the Daniel Garber Prize for Excellence in Drawing, Pennsylvania Academy if the Fine Arts. (2022)
Packard Drawing Prize (First Place), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2021)
Mt. Gretna Student Show Juror's Selection, Third Place (Awarded by Clintel Steed) (2020)
Mt. Gretna School of Art Merit Scholarship (2020)
Hannah Shickley Memorial Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (2019)
Dean's Scholarship Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (2018)
Presidential Scholarship Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (2018)
Rev. Maynard G. Nagengast, O.S.B. Award For Achievement in the Visual Arts. (2018)
TEACHING
Gallery Specialist, The Barnes Foundation. (2023-Present)
Independent Drawing and Painting Workshops. (2021-Present)
Faculty, Penn Studio School. (2021)
Summer Academy TA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2021)
Teaching Intern, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts High School Program (2018-2020)
CURATION
[Juror] Shaping the Conversation. School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2019)
[Co-Curator] Tenderfoot: An Exhibition of New Artists. School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA. (2019)