Colorbeat

BFA- Visual Arts + SPACE Minor (Social Practice and Community Engagement)

Artist Statement:

 In all my work, I direct focus on visibilizing disabled identities and the topic of access. Implementing direction towards widespread accessibility advocacy, community development projects and independent research conducted in my painting studio. 

The topic of disabled identities has long been foretold within a tone of shame. This shame that myself and many others in the community experience has driven us into isolation. To be invisiblized, not only means systematic denial of entry, but also encompasses the underlying lack of consideration. To be afterthought in design shuts us down, blocks us off and ignores the intrinsic value we have to contribute. As a community worker, I’m inspired by my own experiences in the medical system that have developed a profound sense of belonging within the sector of complex care and community. I’m motivated to use my art practice as a means for community engagement and holistic care. Recently, I organized and curated a show for disabled students at Emily Carr University titled ACCESS NOW. The show publicized student work and stood as a platform for further social changes within the institution. 

As a painter, my practice engages with the internal mischief of invisible disabilities, sourcing visual inspiration from medical scans, memory, and vascular forms. My work sheds light upon the invisible biological systems within us that make errors, misbeat, misalign, and grow in all sorts of funky ways. I take witness to sensation, pain and ability as it ebbs and flows. Exploiting confinements of the visible and invisible grid by reframing the body through line, weaving practices and installation. To minimize bodily strain, I primarily work seated at a desk creating small-scale watercolour paintings on paper. Using watercolor pigments, alcohol ink and graphite on varied material grounds, I create subdued, translucent, and gentle forms that intersect and bleed just as the body does. Oftentimes creating multiple paintings, cutting them up and weaving them together to form a new composition. My combination of swift gestural marks and methodic linear structures node to diagnostic data analysis. This internalized portraiture abides by my own judgment of accuracy as it obscures and abstracts the sense of self beyond traditional means of representation. Each painting is a diary entry or moment in time, measured and defined by precision of my hands. 

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Portfolio