Artist Statement

Art is my survival, my medicine and my reason for being. I say this as a fact, because I am an artist who was first a person suffering from mental illness. I started my studio, Dopamine Clinic, to create art that shares my existentialist philosophy with the world. I believe anything can be transformed into anything, whether a life or a few pieces of paper and wood. What I enjoy best about creating my art and the art itself, is the process, of bringing out the designer in my soul. When my work is going well, I am filled with a sense of self-actualization. I feel like I am falling in line with my purpose as a human being, which is to create. I am a self-taught artist with a natural intuition toward aesthetics. My technique is mostly a freestyle which allows me to express myself through my art without boundaries or hardened preconceptions.
I begin a piece first by selecting photos and images that display a distinctly urban mood that feels seedy, subversive, and taboo in some cases. Patterns never seem to surface in my work. Each project is started with a random sort of knack, but habits have formed in the way I select materials. My favorite tools are scissors and glue because they are the most essential, colorful and effective for deconstructing something whole and creating something beautiful with an entirely new identity which I can present as a piece of original artwork. When I work with scissors and glue, I am reminded that everything can be taken apart and rearranged. I am reminded of the constant changes in the world’s forms. My favorite materials are bright construction paper, magazines, trash, and print media. These are my favorite materials because they give birth to my artistic expression in the form of three-dimensional collage constructions and artist books with clarity and availability.
My poverty makes material availability a huge factor in my efforts to produce art. This poverty also drives the part of my brain that comes up with creative solutions, and so it is a component of my methods. My artwork ranges across themes and subjects, from fashion and playful instructions in crafts and life, to the serious arenas of politics, sex, mental illness, poverty and society. I select these themes because they are reflections of my experience and worldview. I finally know a piece is done when I feel in my heart, that adding anything further can only serve to injure the piece and reduce clarity.
When people see my work, I would like them to feel excited and intrigued by the colors, images, materials and curious about how they are assembled. I want my viewers to freely interpret what they see in my pieces. My current work includes L’Escroc, a beautiful, vibrant seven volume graphic novel that grew out of my life experience. It is done with photomontage in artists’ books. I am exploring how writing and imagery are used to appreciate and contextualize each other.