Artist Statement

New York City is bustling with color, texture, and vibrancy. Though filled with its challenges, many of them economic, we artists persist, speaking up and speaking out in New York's endless artistic conversation. Our work is our contribution to this conversation. In my submission, colored lines of paint are layered over 8“ x 10” black-and-white film photographs (my own). The paint responds to the shapes, lines, and energies, emitting from the photograph. These colored lines do not take away from the photograph, but rather highlight the image’s underlying structures. The paint and the photograph converse, reimagining the original image. I am always finding new ways to create, perspectives to take, and colors to combine. I have learned these lessons, moving through this city whose subways, buildings, sidewalks, and sticker-covered lamp posts have felt the brushstrokes, seen the flashes and showcased the banners of the the likes of Keith Haring, Diane Arbus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the Guerilla Girls. These painted photographs are both my response to this ongoing, artistic conversation in New York and also an attempt to carve out my own course in that current.