My work is an attempt to translate multiple generations of shared memory through genealogy and oral tradition. Interpreting the stories I’ve heard my whole life of relatives long dead and including those stories into my own autobiography results in a narrative that is true yet impossible. I’m interested in the strength of memory and shared experiences through blood lines and story telling; the ability for the narrator to influence the listener to the point of distorting the listener’s own memories.

The quiet, dark settings and vignettes I create are visual representations of my faux autobiography. These places, largely reminiscent of far northern climates are settings that I relate to far easier than the urban landscape I actually live in. Creating these pieces is an opportunity for me to connect with my personal family history by inserting myself directly into it, and exercise a need to find a quieter life than the one I currently live. Using symbols instead of figures, I try to create a narrative atmosphere that is open to interpretation, depending on the viewer.

By taking these symbols and settings and sealing them in wax, or matte medium, I am preserving the moments, but also creating a lens to view these memories through. Using a monochromatic pallet to create soft focus images and then sealing them in a glassy layer of encaustic or plastic, I’m creating the illusion of a memory visualized or an interpretation of a story in ones mind. The texture and distorted views show the soft focus the mind creates when trying to visualize a story as it’s being told.