Artist statement:

My art maps my position relative to my surroundings. It's the way I process complicated feelings of attraction, repulsion, and fascination towards the world around me as I try to locate and communicate personal ideology. I engage mediums and technologies as a critical response to conventions I find problematic, ultimately aiming to call to question the value of things. I replicate mass media and pop culture forms and try to work them into poetic contexts.

In my work with VR, I'm intrigued by the immersive, yet solitary experience inside the headset as one becomes isolated from all other screens and spectacles by a screen wrapping the eyes. I am wary of the universal dead void of virtual space and its illusions at planetary scales. I try to keep pace with emerging tech gadgets. I am alarmed by Big Tech's dominance over our future as they hoard information, amass unfathomable wealth, and build private space programs.

Living in Oklahoma, I've grown increasingly fraught with my relationship to oil and plastic. The landscape is littered with pump jacks and fracking rigs while my home is awash in my toddler's plastic toys. I make moving images as a catharsis. 3D animation software renders most virtual objects plastic–like, as smoothed low–poly modeling pairs with basic standard shaders. It's no surprise the first Pixar release was A Toy Story.

I shoot Super 8 as a documentary practice and creative antidote to working with computers. I love working in the moment shooting film. I find capturing footage through a viewfinder and the precious, ethereal quality of the image a respite from the hyper–reality of digital media.

Overall, I want my work to challenge dominant narratives while remaining accessible to a broad audience. I am driven by a desire to gain mastery of the material world; to claim my power over powers that be. The hope is these subversive versions of images, objects, and environments help to unmask truth behind appearances.



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