My practice begins with a piece of salvaged wood, styrofoam, or unrecyclable plastic headed for a landfill. The forgotten objects are honored as I spend time sanding, gluing, filling, and prepping their surfaces for paint. I then apply acrylic paint onto the salvaged objects in an intuitive and gestural process of gestural strokes, as I pour, splash, splatter, smear, and brush paint. The paint’s flow and viscosity becomes an organic, uncontrollable part of the process. As the paint spreads, pools, drips, dries, and sometimes cracks in hot environments, it results in unexpected shapes, textures, and forms. I allow these moments and artifacts of intuitive, unbridled expression to dictate the overall composition of my work. 

Once the paint is dry, my process diverges into two distinct bodies of ongoing work—The Timespent Show (January 2021-present)  and InToon (September 2021-present). As I study the dried paint and prepare my ink, I decide whether the piece will be an abstract addition to The Timespent Show, or a cartoon-inspired character drawing of the series InToon. It’s less of a decision and more of a request and sometimes even a demand from the piece itself. 

 When the unexpected shapes, forms, and fields within the dried paint inspire an InToon work, I use my intuition and unconscious associations to develop representative imagery from the abstract shapes—much like a Rorschach test. I perceive figures, characters, faces, and creatures born of my own thoughts and associations. My initial perceptions of these characters and figures are unique to who I am and what I’ve experienced. I pull the characters out of the paint with pencil before dipping a pen into ink and further defining my immediate associations. As I begin inking the piece, I am humbled that my perceptions are also unique to each moment, everchanging with my fluctuating level of awareness. I strive to remain aware that my associations are constantly updating, informed with each passing moment and are hindered by reaching too far into the future of the process. InToon reflects my efforts to manage anxiety by trusting my intuition, remaining presently aware of the unpredictable nature of my thoughts, and adjusting to new perceptions moment by moment.

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