As a native New Yorker, I’m accustomed to change. Over the course of my lifetime, its residents have transformed the city more times than I can count. That experience informs my art. I believe all things change and make art that alludes to this process. People and systems inspire me. I constantly take pictures as a means of understanding and documenting the world around us. I use these images to create photo-based collage paintings. I cut and tear photographs into pieces and these torn pieces replace a paint brush as my primary drawing tool. The fragmentation of the torn photos depict how I see our world systems—messy and broken. I break down existing structures and create new compositions. The physical act of my ripping up the photos alludes to the systemic issues pulling apart our society. Using photos of broken structures to rebuild our country I make new worlds that seek systemic justice and redefine beauty. I draw inspiration from those who came before me. In the words of Louise Bourgeois, “Art is restoration: the idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented... into something whole. “

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