You can find select pieces from my series Habitual Tendencies displayed in the drawers at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, as part of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Drawers exhibition.

What an honor it is to be accepted into this space, included among a collection of 58 incredibly talented artists from the PNW. I’m looking forward to spending time with the works of these artists over the next year and gaining even more inspiration from this beautiful part of the country. I’ll will surely share my favorite finds with you all here. 

This series was originally a concept I had conjured for my thesis in college and truly I nor my professor could see a way to bring these feelings and ideas to life in a visual way that anyone else would feel connected to, in such a short time. I’ve been collecting moments since then and compiling the ones that speak to my memory or my outlook on my current environment, my hopes for our future, but it wasn’t until I started meeting with other visual artists and sharing the work that I saw the true possibility that existed. It’s comforting to have a project that I can continue to work on without deadlines and expectation. It feels like a piece of me that I can watch grow and evolve. While I do think the images all stand strongly on their own, connecting the dots for others felt hit or miss. I spent a lot of last year revisiting my project statement and I think the explanation helps the viewer see what I see. 

“Habitual Tendencies is a collection of observations on the result of routine: subtle inclinations that are imprinted in our minds, our environment. These images are ultimately products of my unquenchable curiosity in the world around me.

The challenge lies in repackaging our habits. This idea sparked from the vivid recollection of childhood memories: the worn, sun-bleached tire marks in the grass where the USPS driver established their routine, the way that southern summer tan lines never seemed to truly fade away once summer had, and the half alive, once treasured and awed over Christmas trees that would line the sidewalks like fallen war heroes waiting to be swept away to their final resting place. I revisit these moments through a new lens, in a different city, where the mind’s composition is hauntingly familiar.

This is a continued body of work, a discovery that is revolving around memory and perhaps the fear of its disappearance as age progresses and personal choices take their toll.”