My work explores how mark making can emphasize emotion and meaning in a work of art through line quality, gesture, and color as well as playing with focal points. The lack of visual context relating to a specific time or place within my work abstracts the drawing visually and conceptually without physically abstracting the subject itself, creating a juxtaposition between realism and abstraction. I have chosen to depict bird nests not only because they are a subject I enjoy working with due to the various textures, forms, materials, and colors present within them, but because I view them as a symbol of my transition from childhood to adulthood and a representation of my own personal feelings, fears, and anxieties that are a part of that transition. Using the nest allows me to cloak my own personal feelings and associations in what appears to be a seemingly mundane object and allows the viewer to sense the emotional overtones and tension present within my work, while presenting something that is conceptually more abstracted than a traditional portrait.
