This is the introspection in my mind as an artist residing in Syracuse, New York.

Archival print on paper, vintage porn (Playboy/Hustler Magazine), vintage porn playing cards, birth control placebo pills, marijuana leaf, bong water, dime bag, Polaroid pictures, home photograph, lightbulb, spray paint, masonite, steel wool, white vinegar

‘Portrait I: My House, His Addiction’ is a pseudo self-portrait that explores the parameters of my grief by reflecting upon the experience of losing a friend.

The house, which represents the head of this individual, connects to the saying, "the lights are on, but nobody's home.” This home also represents the addicts physical home and family life that have been shattered by addiction. The body of the woman, naked and vulnerable, feels the full wrath of her disease, becoming grotesque, animal-like. She claws at her face in attempts to smolder the burning ruminants of her identity.

In retrospect, the piece is named “My House, His Addiction” through the personal experience of losing a friend to addiction. The woman’s body represents myself, and the house represents the house on Westcott Street where my friend used to live.

‘Portrait II: Violence, Sexuality and Steel’ represents a burning mind recovering from an abusive relationship. Through a voyeuristic perspective, we see a woman peering down at a tattered photograph of a couple; the suggested victim and culprit. The woman’s body is not entirely her own, but a recalibrated depiction of past and present identities. This is suggested through her arms; two of which black and white, one of smooth female flesh and one of a man’s. The present body of the flesh, is caressed by her body of the past, a black and white memory which acts as a comforting shadow, as the woman holds a tattered photograph of a couple. Her masculine limb as her present body represents that he will always be a part of identity, yet gestures forgiveness and sympathy from the artists former self and her abuser by reaching out and intertwining his fingers with hers. This interaction of identities lead her present self to acknowledge her past; as if the ghost of her past wants to reach out and hold herself in an act of love. Though fragmented by her experiences, she is now whole again.

Medium-density fiberboard, paint, blood, washers, cables

Installed with intentions to ‘levitate’, Neighborhood is a double sided relief with male and female personas.

Reductive relief print

Scratchboard