My art process is driven by the desire to bring suppressed feelings, memories, and ideas to the surface through abstraction. Specific themes being explored in the work deal with personal and public space around family dynamics and individual growth. The art process is then used to visually describe these complex ideas through the exploration of psychology, where I can find more efficient ways to contextualize them visually than through written text.
I’m influenced by surrealist and abstract expressionist artists who explore the self-consciousness and create abstract imagery, which is the use of ideas or nonrepresentational forms rather than events or recognizable imagery. These abstractions themselves can manifest within reality, by the breaking down of recognizable forms to make the imagery. My working process begins with identifying and researching a historical process in order to reinterpret it in a contemporary way. Many of the techniques explored in my work reflect a surrealist or abstract expressionist approach to spatial depth, symmetry, balance, and color theory to create a believable space that expresses a form or even idea that has no real physical manifestation. I like to combine the careful intentions of symmetrical and perspective art with the free, automatic flow of surreal and abstract thought.
Education
M.A., Museum Studies, Western Illinois University, Moline, IL, May 2019
B.A., Art History and Studio Art, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, May 2017
• 2017 Art Department Purchase Award
• 2016 Art and Art History Academic Assistantship
Exhibits/Installations
2019 Ripples, Solo Show, Moline Center Station, Moline, IL
2019 4th Annual WIU-QC Art Show, WIU-QC Atrium, Moline, IL (2nd Place Award)
2018 3rd Annual WIU-QC Art Show, WIU-QC Atrium, Moline, IL
2018 RAW Minneapolis presents Envision, The Pourhouse, Minneapolis, MN
2017 Vanishing Point, Senior Art Major Exhibit, The Hillstrom Museum of Art, St. Peter,
MN
2017 Synchronicity (installation), Gustavus Schaefer Art Gallery
2016 Carnegie Art Center Juried Exhibit, Carnegie Art Center, Mankato, MN
2016 Junior Art Major Exhibition (installation), Gustavus Schaefer Art Gallery
2015 Perugian Skyline, Fontenuovo, Perugia, Italy (public art space collaborative exhibition)
2015 Sophomore Art Major Exhibition, Gustavus Schaefer Art Gallery
2013 Good Art, Bad Art FTS Student Exhibition, Gustavus Schaefer Art Gallery
Commissions
2018 Insignia Painting, Andy Gladitsch
2018 Business Card Design, Vukan Vujaĉić
2018 Logo and Banner Design, Me Four Free
2018 Band Design, Kill All Humans
2017 The Bunny The Bear Tattoo Design, Nickolia Kraft
2017 Coat of Arms, Holden Sauve
2017 Class of 2017 Tunnel Mural, Gustavus Adolphus College
Curation/Juror
2019 Art on the River, Mississippi Riverwalk, Dubuque, IA (Juror)
2018 Finding Inspiration: Monet to Matisse, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL (Curator)
2015 The Allies on the Italian Front 1915-1918, Casa Museo di Palazzo Sorbello,
Perugia, Italy (group internship curative exhibit)
Internships
2019 Collections Intern at Davenport School Museum, Davenport, IA
2018 Curatorial Assistant Intern at Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL
2015 Museum Internship at Casa Museo di Palazzo Sorbello and Museo del Capitolo della Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Perugia, Italy
Proposals
2017 Exhibition Programming Proposal, William L. Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA (group project proposal)
2017 Visitor Studies Survey Proposal, Loud Thunder Forrest Preserve, Rock Island County Forrest Preserve District, Illinois City, IL (group project proposal)
