The works I make in drawing, video and photography emerge from my reflections and observations of our complex relationship with our natural surroundings. I see this relationship as my point of departure in understanding our humanity: what we value, long for, strive for, dream of, what we fear,  and makes us vulnerable. What I’m particularly interested in representing in my work are landscapes that feel distant and remote such as deserts, mountains and oceans- to me, their vastness and seeming emptiness speak of what is “other” to us: things that are beyond our control. I’m interested in the themes of land, the environment, bodies of water, and the politics, personal and collective narratives. I look into texts, testimonies, accounts and disputes when it comes to issues of ownership, rights and access to them, spiritual relevance, poetic representations, and the narratives about belonging and identity. What motivates me to pursue these topics is my experience and memories of immigrating from coastal environments that have dramatically changed, where some parts no longer exist, and their effect on the psyche.

The medium that I work with mostly is drawing, particularly large drawings, which is a detailed mark-making process that takes considerable time to make. In the time that I am making these large drawings, there are many questions about our place, effect and purpose in the natural world that occupy my thoughts. These questions are what propel me to choose drawing as the medium to carry what I feel and think about these subjects. I count on the drawing medium to be a focused and tactile way of representing the patterns and forms found in nature. I use detailed line drawing, size and scale as the means of insisting on the urgency of the subject of the work. The drawings are either 5 by 8 feet, or 5 by 8 inches in size. Through drawing, I’m creating spaces that are vast, yet finite and intimate. I want the viewer to get a sense of either being enveloped and surrounded by this space, or the sense that they can hold it in the palm of their hand.