Artist's Statement

For this exhibition, I’m creating an installation titled, Crush Years. Crushes are born from spark, assumption, and projection. They require blank space and blurred reality for you to complete their shape with your dreams and desires.

Composed of acrylic and oil paintings with mixed media elements, I envision a space where people will see their own feelings reflected, learn about the history of crushes, and have the opportunity to unravel their own stories.

I take this frivolity seriously, recognizing that although seemingly trivial experiences contain profound truths about human nature, that frivolity itself is political. The perception of crushes as feminine and therefore reduced to idle amusements, and the idea that frivolity, joy, art, are less important amid the overwhelming cruelty of the world, when in fact they are our humanity.

There’s no place more apropos for this installation than Dearly Studio, home of Small Weddings with Big Feeling, and the love epicenter of Bow Market’s crush incubator.