Welcome to my general painting portfolio, full of work I have made in the past few years!
Reading is a Family Affair
2023
24” x 30”
Oil on Canvas
This work is inspired by being an older sister.
My little sister and I love to read, and she is now old enough to read all the books I adored at her age. One day she came into my room with one of those books and sat down across from me, claiming that she just knows the ending will make her cry. It did. This moment encompassed what
it feels like to be a big sister. To watch a mini version of you go through the same experiences and being unable to protect her, only able to support her. I wanted this piece to reflect our mutual love for books, and how reading feels like being transported into another world. The fantasy elements within this painting represent that idea; I had my little sister sitting on a throne of books, held up by all the lives she has lived in those pages.
“Turn on the Light”
2023
20” x 16”
Acrylic on Canvas
In “Turning on The Light,” I painted a familiar scene of my living room/kitchen at night, a place I often visit for a snack during late-night homework sessions. To capture this familiar yet lonely feeling, I used an all blue color palette for the background and created a composition that feels as if you could walk into it. The light is positioned right above where I always sit;
its jarring contrast to the rest of the painting serves as a reminder of being awake when no one else is.
Underneath our Skin
2023
Overall Installation 4ft x 6ft Mixed Media
In this piece, I wanted to explore the underrepresented beauty of the biological processes underneath our skin. Often biology is reduced to easy-to-read diagrams
and scientific illustrations, and while those are vital, they lose the intricacies in exchange for readability. With this piece, I aimed to forgo
the “point to this organelle” style of seeing eukaryotic cells and instead focused on the beauty of their organized chaos. I created a
few highly detailed cells, using various mediums to create multi-dimensional texture and color. These detailed cells are contrasted by the loose cell-shaped watercolors I positioned behind them, serving as a broader perspective of the overall fluidity of cells within their environments.
Adapt
2023
24” x 36”
Oil Paint on Canvas
Adapt is a piece referenced from a photo I
took of my sister snorkeling while we were on vacation. The piece is an exploration of creating organic and fluid textures with oil paint, as well as an appreciation of my little sister’s curiosity.
I focused on representation rather than realism when painting the water in hopes of conveying an organic feeling of movement. The consistency in the color palette is contrasted with the bright yellow-green of the snorkeling gear to emphasize the context of the painting.
Prowling
2023 12” x 12’ Linoprint
“Prowling” is a piece inspired by the exploration of line as a way of expressing form. An idea fitting to its main subject – a tiger. The spiral-like composition emphasized by the exaggerated tail length represents the tiger peeking out of
the forest of foliage. The solidity of the leaves in contrast to the tiger highlights the idea of staying hidden, to then peaking out into light, as seen in the empty upper corner. The uniformity between the tiger and its environment is also seen in the singular color of the final print, emphasizing the camouflage that stripes give a tiger.
Seeing Stars
2023
24” x 36”
Oil on Canvas, Embroidery Floss, Raw Canvas
This painting explores one of my biggest
fears, my own veins. I have a condition called VasoVagal, which means medically diagnosed squeamishness. My blood pressure tanks at any sign of doctors’ offices, blood, needles or any other medical procedure. Through this self-portrait, I confronted a part of my identity that I usually go to lengths to avoid. To highlight my fear and my response to my veins, I sewed my veins on with blue and green embroidery floss. The process of creating this piece, of realistically painting my own arms and then sticking a needle through them was in itself very challenging. Despite this, I found the piece rewarding as a personal depiction of my own disconnect with
my body. To finalize the composition I sewed on canvas cut into stars, giving the piece its name and connecting the viewer to the feeling of passing out or “seeing stars”.