Artist’s Statement

Through oil painting and sculpture I forge expansive abstract worlds giving form and flesh to intuition, emotion, and identity to create amalgamations of color, shape, light, and tone. As a mixed Filipino American born on Oahu, Hawaii, I draw upon the fluidity of my cultural upbringing and the comfort of growing up on an island surrounded by an ocean. By combining thick oil paint with aqueous and thin layers on canvas, I sculpt forms with stratified gestural marks. I build a bridge between the intangible and tangible with works I paint intuitively. Earthly sienna and umber tones anchor cosmic and biological color palettes of vibrant crimsons, blues, and greens. These paintings coexist with sculptures, in which I bring the emotive forms into a spatial dimension. My visual language flows through both mediums with a tendril-like movement, as they undulate and writhe through grotto-like expanses. 

I use effervescent riptides of color, pushing and pulling space to construct surreal environments. Within these permeable and cosmic domains, I highlight the interconnectivity between creation and degradation. The work materializes organically, forming an environment balancing the uncomfortable and serene. With human sized canvases and sculptures, I utilize scale to create a relational connection between body, material, and movement; a dance between myself and the material I work with. These pieces are spiritual echoes of myself rendered physically; externalizations of internal states, bodies, and gestures.