The idea of Requiem derives from my grief for the world around us. The outrageous amount of death from diseases, wars, gun violence, the displacement of refuges, the loss of biodiversity, extinction of species and climate change. It is an elegy for the dead, suffering, and the passage of time, along with all its hardships for humanity and the natural world. I aim to create a body of work that encompasses the pains of our fleeting and evolutionary existence on the planet.
I view trees as beings that silently observe, vessel witnessing our failings. Therefore, it feels natural to use them as an extension or hybrid of ourselves. I use branches and tree trunks to explore our cruelty through flesh, decay, natural science, and biology. I incorporate elements such as blood, wounds, scars, bones, fungi, mummies, fossils, botanical drawings, and insect pinning's in great detail to create an intimate connection with each piece.
We are all experiencing inordinate amounts of pain and grief that is not expressed and not dealt with. This means we are all in some form of limbo unable to move forwards, paralyzed. Until we face and acknowledge our grief we cannot make the world better.
The exposed fresh flesh and wounds in the paintings are a metaphor for death and suffering in the present. The natural history elements are a metaphor for the past. Together, they are meant to mobilize us for a future. To make us reflect on how we value life and the sacrifices needed to inhabit our planet.
These are meant to mobilize us for a future. To make us reflect on how we value life and the sacrifices needed to inhabit our planet. My signature dark backgrounds, present in all my works, symbolize loneliness and the idea of looking into the abyss of hopelessness.
I use minimalism to counteract the daily bombardment of images to bring about a clean form of reflection. The fine detail is a form of respect for the viewer. I paint life size.
Mentes Extractae Mentes Extractae is a hybrid post digital artwork combining oil painting, symbolic ciphers, and web linked systems. I view trees as witnesses to human cruelty and failings. Through driftwood, brain fragments, and AI vectors, the work questions the harvesting of human knowledge and creativity without consent.
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Memento features remnants of birds embedded in a dead tree, including the Ayam Cemani—an all-black chicken believed to bridge the physical and spiritual realms. The work reflects on unacknowledged grief from the COVID-19 pandemic and anticipates the next, using imagery of H5N1 to convey anxiety over a future we seem unprepared for. The piece becomes both a mourning and a warning, fusing symbolism of life, death, and viral threat.
Dolus, deceit, explores human deceit through pitcher plants emerging from dead wood, their consumed animal skeletons mirroring our predatory behaviors.
Testis Vitae Temporis (Witness of the Life of Time) is a requiem for all extinct creatures. I incorporated ammonite fossils from the Paleozoic era into a driftwood tree with fresh, open wounds, opening a discussion on loss, but also the suffering creatures endure before they are gone forever. It questions what our suffering and demise will look like—and already has started to look like—as climate change becomes irreversible.