Persist, 2025
Acrylic on paper surrounded by cut paper frame
8 x 10 in
I am a painter, illustrator, fiber artist, and connoisseur of spiritual history based in Chicago, IL. My work combines a variety of mediums including paint, yarn, paper, and oil pastel, to explore the impact of my prolonged experience with mental illness and to create works that draw parallels between the past and present, particularly Victorian England and Ancient Greece. It was in my search for healing that I discovered my love of art, history, and spirituality. I spend many hours among various books of mythology, tarot, witchcraft, Ancient Greece, and medieval lore, which ultimately inform my work. Drawn to the form, a theatrical use of earth tones and the macabre, as well as fluctuating the physical material in my works, which parallel my constant evolution. All of these inform my exploration into the complexities of the world inside and around me.
Persist is a piece that sits at the center of an ongoing series exploring the bodily impact of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The series, titled “put me in a straitjacket and send me to sea”, refers to the historic practice of sending those deemed to be “hysterical” to the sea. Persist references to the practice of Victorian Death photography. In a moment where the world moved away from paintings being among commonplace items, I’ve reversed it, placing an intimate, detailed painting back into my domestic orbit, while concurrently using this work to tether a specific version of myself to reality in a moment of extreme instability.