I’ve always been drawn to beauty, grandeur, and spectacle. I like things that are theatrical and over the top, and more often than not, borderline tacky. Since I first started painting, I have been interested in exploring power dynamics and began to use fetish-wear as a symbol. Symbolism is a key part of my painting language and I often use symbols that reoccur repeatedly from painting to painting. Although my work is predominantly figurative, it is not about representing the person as an individual, but instead using them as an archetypal figure to represent something bigger. After being diagnosed with a painful ovarian cyst and reading Thomas Mann’s The Black Swan, I have been exploring ideas about fertility, womanhood, and the pressure of time. The novel explores the idea of a woman’s value laying in her fertility and motherhood. I’ve been exploring my own relationship with these ideas as a someone who does not feel maternal in any way. I’ve also been interested in the anxiety and pressure that we can feel being drawn to novelty and playfulness yet yearning something with depth.