BFA Thesis Exhibition - Artist Statement

Life experiences are shaped by our surroundings–natural, geopolitical, and cultural forces set limits on our growth and shape what we become. These forces, and our subjective experience of them, form a personal geography uniquely our own. Elements from my own personal geography form the basis of this work. I practice a sort of regionalism–having been irrevocably altered by the high deserts of Nevada, my work is very much a product of this place. Everything I do is an attempt to move beyond generalized place-based observation and into a singular exploration of place as it relates to the self.

The work in this exhibition explores my personal geographic experiences through a series of interactions–between water and concrete, the viewer and the art object, the gallery and the space outside of it. Pieces exist in a state of flux, not truly functioning as artworks until myself, the viewer, or the forces of nature perform an ephemeral action. This moment, this brief second of contact, is everything to me. Through these moments, as well as through my various engagements with language and cartography, connections are made between my subjective experiences of place and the objective truth of our surroundings.