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       Anxiety and the multi facets it can have, especially through personal experience is where I draw inspiration. It is within human nature to try to make sense of the chaotic elements in one’s life, and my solution is through visual media. From 2018 to 2021 I had a part-time, later full time job, at a grocery store. I spent countless hours over this period of my life performing almost every task within the store. This environment became context/subject matter for my art, as well as a place where my mind would wander, focus, obsess and distract itself. When I worked at the store, I found that the routine, repetitive tasks of stocking, wrapping, scanning, and packing would divert my attention from the hectic environments of home and school. As the store became the place I would spend more time at than anywhere in a post graduation/pandemic world; the inevitable disruption of work life bleeding into home life would later create a shift in focus in my work to a yearning to be home.

    I depict my banal, arguably boring environments and experiences within my work. However each piece is a visual description of the moments where I become immersed in and, simultaneously, get lost in the mundane. In exploring and recreating this mix of chaos and calm, I intend that the viewer should feel immersed and overwhelmed within the scene. I achieve this feeling through, scale, color, material exploration, and forced perspective. I take everyday objects and provide new context and meaning. On occasion I depict myself however my settings are typically devoid of human figures, to intentionally showcase how alone I can feel at times. This content decision allows and forces the viewer to have a more immersive experience within my environments. Being naturally attracted to colors, I find that within the visually stimulating environment of a grocery store, the colors almost overwhelm me. My intense and vibrant color palette is a reflection and visual recreation of this feeling. This is then contrasted with more warm and subdued tones when depicting the home environment. When depicting both environments however I still utilize the same visual language to guide the viewer through the work. Connecting with the viewer through a pseudo-shared experience, by taking seemingly unimportant moments and placing them within a new conversation, is what my work is ultimately about.