Artist Statement

As young as eight years old I can remember being a collector. I saved notes from friends, magazine clippings, and stickers I never wanted to use. Growing up as the eldest child of immigrant parents nothing felt like it was solely mine, so I stored my treasures in shoeboxes under my bed. Often they disappeared, thrown away as “trash.”

That sense of loss shaped how I work now. In my painting and collage practice I play with collected memories using paper, paint, thread, and transfers. Painting has become a space where I can transform this impulse to collect into deeply personal and psychological landscapes.