Artist Statement

My job is located on the 8th floor of the Sharp building at the SAIC campus. I am the Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis for the School. I work on budgeting, reporting and forecasting for the $160M operating budget that spans across all departments. This includes Department 554, Painting and Drawing, which I have a special affinity towards. I am a graduate of the Post Bacc program, Department 514, a much smaller and more intimate department and therefore expense budget.

There’s a formality to the 8th floor where the President, Deans and Provost sit. I do all my work in Excel which commands a grid-like, confined, orderly, controlled and calculated appearance. I analyze tuition revenue and student aid discounts, build five-year forecast models, and load the departmental line item expense budgets to Cognos. There are processes in place for monthly tasks, quarterly journal entities, and annual budgeting. Everything is logical, organized, and planned.

At the end of the day, I take the elevator from 8 to 2.

My studio is on the second floor, Sharp 239. The walls are covered in paintings that proliferate like wildfire ignited by the constraints from above. I throw my body into the work and intentionally paint past the edges of the surface. There is no plan. I like to break the rules, throw everything on there, and somehow it works. I’m a dare devil. I’ll ruin a perfectly good painting for the ever-so-small chance to get a better one. I prefer to paint on paper pinned to the wall for that overly casual rebellious vibe. I go for awkward color palettes and I like my paintings messy. I delight in outcomes that are unfinished, off-kilter, slightly quirky and unpredictable. I’m greedy for the widest range possible in my work in terms of color, scale, shapes and marks. The only thing that gives this double life away is my Staff ID and the fact that I always leave my studio table clean and organized. It’s an 8th floor habit.