from a girl's room 

A girl’s bedroom is often understood as a sacred space, acting as the private chamber of mirror monologues, poster-covered walls, nail polish-stained carpet, and stacks of old childhood relics in the back of the closet. The works made for this show, “from a girl’s room”, use the bedroom as a symbolic reference point for self discovery and identity reflection. It’s a space that holds change, proven by the once-worn clothes at the bottom of the dresser and old tack holes in the walls from previously hung decor. In this collection of work I explore the relationship to one’s self, the pining for all one wants to be, and the reflection of what one once was. Through abstract, figurative oil painting and collage work, I inspect my old childhood bedroom, peeling back the layers of wall paint, digging through the piles of photos, and finding old notes tucked into bookcases. These paintings reflect on the bright wonder of girlhood, the glittery, sticky angst of teen years, and the somber, sobering melancholy of newfound adulthood in the digital age. I explore the nostalgia for a slower time of a smaller world, and the tiresome, and oftentimes lonely present. I use abstraction to touch far away memories and bring them into the present-day room I paint them into. The bright yellow of my first favorite color, the pink of the princess birthday cake, the 2003 purple of my friend’s bedspread, the red of the color I first painted my nails. It’s the palette I’ve been collecting my whole life brought together with hindsight reflections of joy, yearning, rage, peace, and longing.