In recent years my work has been centered on creating public artworks and interactive installations. This mode of making culminated in 2021 with a large work at the Rochester Art Center, entitled BUBBLES. This work sought to unpack my family’s pandemic experiences in an over-the-top demonstration of studio output, complete with a mural-sized painting of my mother’s house and several minutes of nonsensical layered video art. Soon after the show’s opening my second son was born and my life was transformed in ways I never thought imaginable. Sure, there are more diapers, more crying, more sleepless nights but that’s not the hard part. I relish in the pain of understanding the extremities of bliss and despair in the face of banality. The everyday is both, the enemy and the ever-present joy. As with any parent, I have danced with time. Balancing connection with my children against the solitude I require to stay sane. Studio time is a cute word when you are responsible for two human beings, so, I shifted from making massive works to painting tiny paintings. The work you see before you was created during the winter months of 2022 with a small baby crawling at my feet and preschooler working in-tandem next to me on his own easel. I hope you enjoy some of these characters in the same way I enjoyed bringing them to life.
Title: Some Portraits From 2022
date: 2022
medium: mixed media on cardstock
dimensions: 41 - 4"x6" paintings (secretly 2 of them are larger)
On view at Minneapolis College of Art’s Main Gallery until Nov. 5, 2022
