Most religions and spiritual systems ask that you strive for transcending the body. Peace and righteousness are found somewhere other than here. This way of thinking, while beautiful and aspirational, ignores what we are tangibly... an animal, and I would much rather tend to the beast I share my body with than attempt to outgrow it.

I am not a spiritual person, but I have spent years investigating the systems humans have built around our flesh, to explain it, condemn it or ignore it. Myths, theology, philosophy and even every day stories are a map of all that we desire to be and transversely, what we are running from admitting we are. The Earth Below is a body of work exploring our shadows as told by the very stories we have built cultures and fought wars over. I am not here to argue anything, merely share what I find in the dark.

My work centers depictions of instinct overtaking reason. The figures are often blind, symbolic of this state. Animals are joined with human forms at the site of a wound, alluding to a characteristic of that animal we share. I find that horror speaks to the discomfort we feel in confronting our own shadows, and for that reason it finds its way into much of my art.