Believing that figurative work has the ability to express identity by depicting the humor and pathos of the human condition, I use portraiture to explore the ongoing conflict of adhering to social norms across different social classes. I am interested in looking at the female body and how it navigates social spaces and the increasingly blurred boundaries between class and culture in contemporary society. The women in my artwork often have droopy breasts, dangling cigarettes, sunburned arms, and display their unabashed sexuality while striking classical art historical poses. These women are drinking cheap beer in cans and smoking cigarettes while surrounded by working-class paraphernalia. At the same time, they inhabit beautiful interiors with lush plants, velvet drapery, books, and fancy dogs suggesting a sophisticated lifestyle. I am interested in my position as a contemporary female artist and what it means to be a woman painting another woman, thereby taking back ownership of the female nude which was historically painted by male artists.

In my recent body of work, I am exploring notions of good and bad taste within social class. I was raised in a large family in a working-class neighborhood outside of Boston. I am a first-generation college graduate, and after graduating from university, I learned Japanese, and worked in Japan where I met my partner, and together, we raised bi-racial children in the U.S.  

My adult life has been a hybrid of an unrefined upbringing and the privileged multi-cultural spaces that I occupy today. Navigating these two contrasting worlds, I am interested in the “choice” to like something of bad taste when it is against one’s better judgement. In my paintings, I juxtapose objects from high and low culture in an attempt to illuminate the cultural hierarchies we create.