Please tell us about the origins and process for Companion, this issue’s cover image.
I’m drawn to imagery of bestial hybrid women as avatars of feelings and impulses we consider unacceptable and unfeminine, but remain within us all the same. This painting was made as the cover for the first zine I put out containing my own poetry, and the dog-woman gnawing on an unresisting snake, which feels both violent and tender to me, seemed like a fitting accompaniment to all the mixed feelings I had about sharing my work.
You recently opened your first solo show at Wave Hill last month. Can you tell us about what you’re working through conceptually right now, in your latest work?
My show at Wave Hill, Folkloric Taxonomy, reimagines the divinatory systems of astrology and tarot through the lens of Chinese mythology, Buddhist iconography, and animal symbolism. My latest work continues to explore these themes, incorporating embroidery and textiles into images of door guardians and demon families.
How do you handle creative blocks?
I try to plan an excursion day, whether it’s to see exhibitions, or go to a garden, or find new books—anything to interrupt a work spiral.
What happens to your failed pieces?
They get tetris’d together into a corner for sometimes years until I pull them out and paint them over… there are lots of smaller works that used to be still-lives from college before I sanded them down and went over them.
Select an element of technique and discuss how your approach to it has evolved since you started making art professionally.
My relationship with color has evolved, from an initial interest in portraiture and local color, to a much more playful and emotional approach currently.
I’m drawn to imagery of bestial hybrid women as avatars of feelings and impulses we consider unacceptable and unfeminine, but remain within us all the same. This painting was made as the cover for the first zine I put out containing my own poetry, and the dog-woman gnawing on an unresisting snake, which feels both violent and tender to me, seemed like a fitting accompaniment to all the mixed feelings I had about sharing my work.
You recently opened your first solo show at Wave Hill last month. Can you tell us about what you’re working through conceptually right now, in your latest work?
My show at Wave Hill, Folkloric Taxonomy, reimagines the divinatory systems of astrology and tarot through the lens of Chinese mythology, Buddhist iconography, and animal symbolism. My latest work continues to explore these themes, incorporating embroidery and textiles into images of door guardians and demon families.
How do you handle creative blocks?
I try to plan an excursion day, whether it’s to see exhibitions, or go to a garden, or find new books—anything to interrupt a work spiral.
What happens to your failed pieces?
They get tetris’d together into a corner for sometimes years until I pull them out and paint them over… there are lots of smaller works that used to be still-lives from college before I sanded them down and went over them.
Select an element of technique and discuss how your approach to it has evolved since you started making art professionally.
My relationship with color has evolved, from an initial interest in portraiture and local color, to a much more playful and emotional approach currently.