On Our Own - 2021
Like many, the pandemic forced me to confront thoughts and emotions that the rhythms of daily life had long allowed me to ignore. No matter where you were in the world, there was no escape from the reality we were, and still are, facing. I was watching a global crisis alone in my apartment, torn between the desire to help and the fear that my very presence would make things worse. I started painting my own figure, as I could not in good conscience project this feeling of inadequacy onto anyone else. I turned my figure away, blocked her eyes with stubbornly long hair, and fixed her face backwards – coping mechanisms for venturing forwards into an unforeseeable future. This lack of eye contact allows my figure to serve as a vessel for others’ emotions, a way to absorb them and, in the sharing, perhaps lighten them just a bit.
Picturing When - 2015Before moving to Los Angeles, I hadn’t fully realized the visual presence that television and film would have in my life. While the same narratives are watched worldwide, here they are plastered on billboards and the sides of buildings. Through my paintings, which were previously limited to references from my childhood, I began to analyze the presence of television and film in this city. The emotions that television and film inspire in us are real and felt. When many of us respond to the same fictional characters and settings, they become common ground on which we can connect. In my small, devotional paintings, references to television and film reflect the intimacy one can feel when watching these fictional narratives. My meticulous marks with oil paint, a medium that has been used to immortalize icons and narratives for so long, allow these stills from moving pictures to be studied at a slow pace. While the light from a screen delivers the majority of stories today, common narratives have also been delivered by the light from a window. Stained glass both preserves and elevates its subjects. By painting billboards, film and television scenes, and Los Angeles streets in stained glass, I explore both the physicality of oil paint, which I layer, one transparent pigment at a time, and the roles that television and film play in our lives.
EDUCATIONHenry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Indiana University, 2012
MFA, Studio Art, PaintingMaryland Institute College of Art (MICA) 2009
BFA, Painting Major, Art History Minor and Literature Minor
Summa Cum LaudeInternational School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Italy 2007
AWARDS
Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Fellowship 2010 – 2011
Mary Jane McIntire Fellowship 2010 – 2011
Friends of Art Fellowship 2010 – 2011
First Place Cash Prize, Pygmalion's Cool Yellow Juried Art Show 2011
MICA Language and Literature Departmental Award 2009
MICA Painting Departmental Recognition Award 2009
MICA Dean’s List 2006 – 2009
Rebecca and Joseph Meyerhoff Scholarship 2006 – 2009
Trustee Scholarship 2006 – 2009
Academic Honors Scholarship 2006 – 2009
Third Congressional District Competition Winner 2006
Gilman School Art Competition Winner 2006
Bryn Mawr School Art Prize 2005EXHIBITIONS
Retrospective Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2019
Figurative Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery
Santa Monica, CA 2019
Small Works Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery
Santa Monica, CA 2016
TV Dinner, Pretend Gallery
Los Angeles, CA 2015
Picturing When, Lora Schlesinger Gallery (Solo)
Santa Monica, CA 2015
Summer Group Show, Lora Schlesinger Gallery
Santa Monica, CA 2013
Our Extended Family, Grunwald Gallery, Indiana University (Solo)
Bloomington, IN 2012
Breaking Boundaries, Fuller Projects Space, Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 2011
Magnitude 7, Manifest Gallery
Cincinnati, OH 2011 – 2011
Pygmalion's Cool Yellow Juried Art Show, Pygmalion's Art Supplies
Award Winner (First Place Cash Prize)
Bloomington, IN 2011
Indiana University School of Fine Arts MFA Painting Show, SoFA Gallery
Bloomington, IN 2011
BFA Thesis Show, MICA
Baltimore, MD 2010
Disegno 3: Contemporary Undergraduate Drawing, MICA, Kansas City Art Institute, University of South Carolina
Baltimore, MD
Kansas City, MO
Columbia, SC 2010 – 2010
Small Works: Auction and Silent Auction, The Light Gallery
Baltimore, MD 2009 – 2009
First Annual Local Artists Exhibition, Definition Gallery
Baltimore, MD 2009
A Dozen Echoes, Definition Gallery
Baltimore, MD 2008
Group Exhibition, International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture
Montecastello di Vibio, Umbria, Italy 2007
Selected Paintings, Watermark Gallery
Baltimore, MD 2006
Congressional District Competition Winners Exhibition, Lincoln Tunnel
Washington, DC 2005 – 2006PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
Founder/Art Consultant, Cusp Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY/Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD, current
Director, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2012 - 2020
Curator, Paint is a Thing, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2016
Freelance Photo Editor, Lily Spindle, Los Angeles, CA, 2016
Visiting Lecturer and Critic, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 2015
Visiting Lecturer, Harvard Westlake Middle School, Los angeles, CA, 2015
Associate Instructor, Fundamentals Drawing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2011 - 2012
Assistant for Art Dealer, Washington, DC, 2010
Artist-In-Residence, Gilman School, Baltimore, MD, 2010
Guest Speaker/Visiting Artist for AP Drawing Course at MICA, 2009
Guest Speaker for AP Senior English Class at Bryn Mawr School, 2009
Gallery Assistant for Definition Gallery, Baltimore, MD, 2009
Intern for Definition Gallery, Baltimore, MD, 2008
Representative of MICA Painting Department in the Annual MICA and University of Baltimore Leadership Retreat, 2008