Artist Statement: If you’ve owned a coloring book in your life, you probably remember being told to “colour within the lines,” but did you ever question why? Why were you expected to colour a certain way and use assigned colors, keeping you confined within tight borders all while trying to be creative?

These limitations we put on ourselves are arbitrary and just like the lines in a colouring book, they can divide and contain us. When we step over these metaphorical and sometimes physical lines, we can create new images, new ideas, explore new lands, work with new materials and more. Lines serve as direction but shouldn’t define us. Maybe this is best understood in our youth? When we are young, we question everything and can imagine anything, every experience is novel to us, and no question is too silly to ask. Youth offers us access to fresh perspectives on things that perhaps older generations just accept because that’s all they know.

In my art I’m always trying to connect to my inner child; a voice all of us have inside and from which I hope to draw inspiration. When a youthful perspective is applied to any scene no matter how minimal or maximal, it can be reimagined in new ways.