WHY DO YOU DO IT? WHAT DRIVES YOU?
It’s more of a need, similar to needing water or food. It’s not really a choice. I could ignore it, but then I’d feel like complete shit with this megalith size of an itch that isn’t being scratched. Expansion drives me. Curiosity drives me. Fear drives me. The unknown drives me. Most of all, becoming more connected to not only oneself, but others, and exploring the ways in which we’ve felt disconnected from oneself and others. Checking in with our internal managers, if you will. And yes, do I want others to join in on the journey? To enter these spaces and ask the questions they need to ask oneself to soothe their internal riddles and piece apart the trauma in a way that doesn’t feel completely nasty? 1 bajillion percent. I’m driven to make work for those who have the capacity and curiosity and vision to enter these spaces and feel energetically held. My work can be *weird* and murky, but also familiar and fun and nostalgic and playful and sexy. And we all want to feel sensual sexiness, right!? Lol to some degree, anyway. As a self-proclaimed, sexy, deeply introverted, oddball, I make art for the weirdos who want to feel something, who want that itch in their brain scratched. For those who enjoy the swampy, murky realms yet can still see the beauty of it.
Another BIG driving point: I never know what I will make next. I can have my loose ideas, but I’m always so curious to see what the idea or that feeling transforms into. I love pushing that. I want to make work that people haven’t really seen before. Now, when I’m making work I’m not necessarily like, "I want to make things the world hasn’t seen before” *gremlin voice while rubbing hands together* hahaha. But, you know, low-key a lot of the art I see today is very much so these digestible, trendy, regurgitated images looping around themselves. No shade lol. That's also where the money is at so I get it. Especially with the internet. It’s hard to escape. But I live for that raw, unabashed, uncharted territory uniqueness. I love when I come across an artwork and I go, “Damn, that’s fucking dope. Like nobody’s doing that and I love you for that.” Our minds are so expansive. And there’s so much to explore. My work is driven by that.
Okay, last driving point since I’m big yapping rn lol: Mental security. Which I’ve hinted at throughout, but to make it plain. I’ve personally never felt the most mentally sound nor normal and obviously I’m not the only one who feels that way, duh. Shit is crazy and has beeeen crazy for a lot of us. Especially now. Just look at the fucking world. It’s sick and heartbreaking out here. So I hope my work can shine a light on the simple beauties that can still be found externally and internally while feeling like an energetic cleanse or a mental reset resting point in the midst of it all.
WHAT IS ONE THING YOU DO FOR SANITY MAINTENANCE?
Okay, lately when I’m in a mood or sad or whatever — need a lil boost, if you will — I go to these cute personal hot tubs with an open sky roof. Or lack thereof? No ceiling all sky baby ;) Sometimes I’ll sit outside by the lake with a coffee and watch the birds and people pass by...literally what I’m doing right now as I write this. I meditate. Clean my room. Spend time alone making art with an NTS playlist blasting into my soul. And of course good conversation with my besties. The convos my soul bb Laur and I have... You couldn’t get that level of heart healing and brain expansion even in your most expensive therapy session. One day we’ll record them.
WHAT IS THE SCRAPPIEST THING YOU’VE DONE TO MAKE OR SAVE $$?
Oh god, should I out my tea like that!? lollll honestly not sure but definitely open to acquiring money scrappily when necessarily.
YOUR TASK IS TO PRESCRIBE ONE BOOK OR FILM TO THE COLLECTIVE FOR MANDATORY CONSUMPTION. WHAT IS IT?
FILM: ORLANDO (Based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel of the same title)
One more: Serial Experiments Lain
current obsession?
K dramas. Making music. Sitting by this little waterfall pond I found a couple of months ago. 10/10. Oh, and sadly TikTok. Please send help lol.
MOST USEFUL FAILURE?
Most useful failure is failure lol. Failure can be good and sometimes show you where you’re not meant to be or push you in the right direction. In the great wise words of angel baby Aaliyah, dust yourself off and try again. I discover so much when something doesn’t go as planned. Lean innnnn.
SELECTED Q FROM THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I’d come back as someone near and dear to my mom in her childhood that she grows up with so I can show her all the love and care she deserves.
Plus two bonus questions…
What is your motto?
Rock 'n' roll, baby (but in a 'it is what it is' type way lol. When life is feeling hectic but you must keep it pushin’).
Which living person do you most despise?
All of the disgusting small-brained people in 'power' doing and causing the most heinous atrocities, and the small-brained people on the ground in the day-to-day perpetrating harm to feed their own false sense of power, ego, and corrosive sense of self. Disgusting. We need that Angelina Jolie bending bullets into the TRUE terrorizers of the world type energy asap.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
Personal projects. Currently actualizing my mega list of art ideas that’s been growing in my notes app.
DISCIPLINE OR ANARCHY?
Yes and YES. Both when necessary.
Yes to some intentional and healing self-discipline. Prevents the nervous system from going completely bonkers, e.g. routine, bodily, mental, spiritual care, responsibilities to others, family etc. Yeah, show up for that. DO that.
And hell YES to anarchy, baby. Taking matters into our own hands to rid each other of these morally-devoid oppressors? I mean... that answer is loud.
