My work examines autobiographical depression and the emotional reactions inherent to these states of consciousness. Studying the figure in psychologically conflicted states translated into physical form through body language is expressed through visual metaphors of stripes, shadows and distortions, with the under painting enhancing a sense of distress. Themes consider treatments and surrounding perceptions of stigma associated with mental illness, including prescription medication and electroshock therapy. Another concept explored is how places speak of history. Powerful memories and remnants permanently stored within walls of physical spaces harboring past trauma do not lose potency despite the passage of time. Bringing human presence within spaces is externalized through marks, atmosphere and emotional traces. This constructs areas floating between reality and the invisible traces one evokes, imagines and can physically feel. Liminality is explored in regard to metaphorical states hovering between the areas, and how these places of transition exist. Space is suspended between these mental and physical worlds, with paint portraying pathological responses inherent to emotional residue. This environment conflicts as a dehumanizing factor or enforces the fragility of the context. Bringing ideas of human emotion into physical, cohesive visual representation through paint is the aim of the work.

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