Last semester at Towson University was a challenging and busy time. However, my commitment to my spiritual and artistic practice led to a growing body of artwork for my MFA. I was very fortunate to take two classes. I also had a studio space on campus. This allowed for a deepening of peer critique and enabled larger format work.

Artist Statement 

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive,” says the Dalai Lama. As an American Buddhist painter, my work explores symbolism as a vehicle to compassion. By recognizing our innate Buddhahood, my works invite viewers in. We are connected through emotions like grief, equanimity, and joy. This connection leads us on a path of shared liberation. 

I use both digital and analog collage to explore composition through layered visual relationships. The process with mixed media like newspaper, cardboard, printed photos, and acrylic and oil paint has various benefits. It allows me to create dynamic contrasts between photographic depth and flat painted or found elements. This process embraces the disjointedness of collage. Through layering, repetition, and visual interruption, I invite viewers to navigate obstacles that become portals for emotional attunement. In drawing, I also create layered relationships via smudging, erasing, and marring the paper surface. These physical techniques make the invisible scars etched into our personal and collective psyches visible. 

The imagery is drawn from medical, spiritual, natural, and political sources. X-rays, PETs, MRIs, and ultrasounds visualize our embodied reality of decay and fragility. Buddhist mudras (hand gestures), mandalas (a sacred map of the cosmos), and meditation objects act as anchors. They guide us towards the transformative potential of feeling fully in the present moment. Nature – oceans, fields, flowers – which are inherently free – offer refuge within the frame. Politically, the symbols of the Palestinian poppy, the distinct Jaffa orange, and collaged rubble of Gaza invite us to pause. They ask us to reflect on the ongoing Palestinian genocide. 

Awakening to the present requires acknowledging the political violence of our world; this recognition itself is an act of compassion. My work invites viewers into this practice, not just to witness, but to act and call for the complete liberation of all oppressed people. Understanding this is crucial to the survival of our shared humanity. My practice explores how freedom can exist within a fragile body. It is rooted in the Buddhist wish: may I and all beings be free from suffering.

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Thank you for taking the time to look at and read my work – your reflections and feedback are welcome and appreciated ❤