Artist Statement

I had become restless the evening before my tenth birthday. I tossed and turned at the thought of all the presents I would receive the following day. Whether through desperation or rebellion, I snuck out of my room in the dead of night on a mission to satiate my curiosity. I checked the usual hiding spots my parents used when I was a child. I couldn’t find any presents. Impatient and disappointed, I kept searching. In a spare room on the first floor, I found an unmarked cardboard box lit by a sliver of moonlight spilling through the blinds. I had to look inside. In the box were dozens of T-shirts with a curly-haired comic book character I didn’t recognize, and below that, the initials "APR": my initials. 

At the time, I didn’t connect the dots: merchandise for my birthday party, brandishing a superhero who was supposed to be me? I loved comic books; how could I not have known about or invented this character first? I was furious. I forgot about my mission to spoil my own birthday and stormed into my room with colored pencils and large sheets of paper. Under the light of my bedside lamp, I drew. Fueled by jealousy, I created my own character, similar to the one I saw on the T-shirt. Sleep-deprived, I woke the following day covered in drawings of this newly invented character. Soon after, my family barged into my room, wearing the T-shirts I had discovered the night before. This drove me mad. When I explained my anger to my parents, they told me that this was an original character, inspired by many of the comics I had already made. Realizing I had been competing with myself all along, I flushed with embarrassment and continued to have a birthday I would never forget.

I have been inventing characters, creating worlds, and telling stories ever since. Like the hero’s journey I fell in love with during my youth, and continued to examine as I grew older, I now embark on a search for self-discovery and understanding through my paintings. With the same determination I once had, glazing-eyed beneath the light of my bedside lamp, I now work to construct a visual language of my own: a layered narrative that gives form to my beliefs, anxieties, and sense of meaning, and immortalizes them in oil and gold.