My paintings grow out of my observational personality: I regard myself more as an observer than a participant in the situations I find myself in. Through my paintings, I use this lens to analyze human behaviors, scenes, and interactions – learning about myself and my relationship through my surroundings. I find a large conversation about our contemporary culture around the table and food, that also expands around our still-life surroundings and environments. There are endless possibilities to not only experience people in places and times, but also to describe their experiences without the need to include the actual participants. What does our physical “stuff” say about us? Sometimes I find it both fascinating and challenging in a world which mainly focuses on the figurative representation of the human experience and story, while our surroundings and debris of our experiences become more and more of what defines us in Western culture. Throughout my body of work I take an introspective look into our celebratory, intimate, romantic, and vulnerable moments – and share those personal experiences in a visual way. With the focus on finding repetitive objects and places in these compositions, we can begin to define an experience, a culture, and a group of people without including the participants. My body of work is also a way of translating a transformation and catharsis I’m going through in my life as I become more self-reflective. Taking the opportunity to tell my personal stories and experiences of happiness, grief, love, loss, and growth through my observational personality: capturing the fleeting moments, the echoes of people, the places and situations which are mine and fully personal, but at the same time encompassing and relatable.