Safety has become currency. Our time is ripe with ever-evolving threats, dangers and fears – some real, some invented or sensationalized. Whether it is terrorism or a cure for a common ailment, we exchange control over our lives for safety from these threats. The question comes down to how much control does one give up for a sense of security?

In my work I explore the themes of control and protection and the difficulties encountered in achieving a balance between the two. Growing up in a military family introduced me to the dynamics involved in finding such a balance as well as the restrictions and benefits found in a rigid social system. The relationship between protector/controller and protected/controlled is complicated and often polarized. My focus is to find and emphasize a middle ground between the personal and empathetic and the political and polemic.

My practice shifts back and forth between painting and video. Each informs the other. In both I find images or situations that possess the capacity to signify something greater than themselves. The categorical, institutional aesthetic of a museum and the image of a donkey lifted by the weight of the cart it is strapped to, both speak to different forms of control and protection. My goal is not merely to present images that criticize these forces in their multifarious forms, but to use them in a way that will create a ground for dialogue.