New Series: Typographic Expressions

This new series of paintings explores my relationship with emotions and how my self-imposed boundaries have restricted them. Each emotion is depicted as a word; the first time recognized words have appeared in my art. The letters of the words are compressed together, like how I have historically tried to control and contain any expression of emotion.

With charcoal, I have drawn over the compressed edges of the words, obscuring them while at the same time making them legible. These marks not only expand the words, as my acceptance of these emotions has grown, but has also left a residue. A residue of experience, that is not clean, polite or always pretty, but necessary to tear down the walls of shame that I have used to protect myself from my needs. This is a messy process but one that will release enormous internal energy and generate a freedom that I need to create.