About //

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been drawn to mediums that force me to give up control. Being drawn to abstract but having grown up practicing realism, I find these mediums offer an element of happenstance that gives me a bit of a thrill that I don’t always find when I know exactly what I’m drawing and what the end result should look like. It forces me to abandon the control I’m used to having and it becomes a more collaborative process with the medium itself. Like the idea behind raku pottery--when you let nature and the process have influence over the piece, there’s beauty in the resulting ‘imperfections.’

Plaster initially caught my eye—offering a clean, “blank slate” with lots of room for variation. It also offered a bit of a short-cut to breaking up with habits of control because it only allows a short window of time to receive direction before it cements. Decisions are made quick and you can’t modify the results.

When I was ready to graduate to colour, I sort of played with all mediums within reach. Eventually I found a way to transition the etch + remove technique I used with plaster to a mixed media process that involves collage, acrylic, and oil paints. The uniform, semi-pixilated etching gives this “zeroes + ones” tech vibe that is simultaneously completely organic and offers so much room to explore. I love that.