Bio
I am a queer, interdisciplinary artist inspired by wild, strange, and magical things. I grew up in Pensacola, Florida where I developed a love for nature and the outdoors. After being introduced to ceramics and getting my associate's degree at Pensacola State College, I continued on to earn a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2014). I received an MFA in Ceramics at the University of Notre Dame (2022). I enjoy long walks, video games, poetry, music, dancing, and summer thunderstorms.
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Artist Statement
My current body of work began as a way to process my complicated experiences growing up as a queer person in the American South. Engaging with Jose Esteban Muñoz’s ideas concerning “Queer Futurity,” I am interested in the speculative possibilities of gleaning from the past as a way to manifest possible queer, utopic futures.
I utilize imagery inspired by nature and folklore, allowing me to depict personal narratives through symbolism and iconography. I use this imagery for world-building to construct an alternate, imaginary environment. I gravitate towards the idea of the enchanted forest as a queer space outside of confining societal constructs where the strange, secret, and magical occur. Amongst flora and fauna, I incorporate hybrid beings to complicate binary categorizations of gender, sexuality, and the construct of human separation from nature.
I am co-opting the alluring visual language of 18th and 19th-century decorative objects to reclaim these motifs from past repressive cultures as tools to challenge the repression prominent in today’s society.