Artist Statement

In this series of work, I create a visual language for communicating the physical and mental experience of individuals with chronic illness and invisible disabilities from a female perspective. These disorders leave numerous people feeling like they have lost control of their lives and even lost themselves. Many feel the separation from what their mind wants and what their body is able to provide, a clash of two inhabitants in one space. Feeling separate from one's body is an experience that leaves countless people angry, lonely, and left to feel unseen as a person. The social and personal consequences often impact all aspects of everyday life and can be unbearable.

Featured here are two different narratives. The large graphite drawings are rendered representations of a body that seems to disappear before the viewer, implying a struggle to be present in the space and to be seen fully. The oil paintings depict abstractions of the body— visual interpretations of the mental frustration of inhabiting a body that doesn't have the ability to escape its reality of pain and heal. The achromatic forms attempt to occupy spaces void of detail, stripping away life's complications. Each gesture manifests the complexities of living with an incurable illness.

This work brings to light the struggle individuals with chronic illness and invisible disabilities have with their bodies, complete with the resultant mental anguish. I seek to invoke considerations of empathy and start discussions around how society perceives the various challenging experiences among those who reside within this often unseen community.

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