Angels Among Us, 2017
MFA Exhibition - Azusa Pacific University, CA
The growing movement of street art captured my intrigue because of its power to influence radical change within society. It has become a major part of my artistic practice and a strong component within the larger story of contemporary art and visual culture. I love its public nature that allows for maximum exposure as well as an interesting dialogue between the art and the environment. My work features repainted angels found in paintings by the Renaissance Masters, wheat pasted onto the walls of the city. This religious imagery can reference ancient desires and timeless existential questions we humans have. Are we alone in this world? Is there a higher power looking out for us? What does it mean for us to look out for each other? The locations of my angel installations tend to be the darker, dank, and discarded parts of the city (i.e. alleyways, underpasses, next to dumpsters, etc.). I aim to recreate these spaces with these angels to provide a social experience for passersby. I am interested in the tension of high art that is normally reserved for places like churches or museums, placed in urban landscapes for an uninitiated public that may never have engaged with these places. I think this recontextualization of the place and purpose of these angels also changes when found in a place that may have been considered “lowly” by early Renaissance commissioners.
Angels wheatpasted throughout the city of Seattle
2015-2018
One might think these art icons do not “belong” in the places where they have been installed. My work directly challenges this assumption as well as the hierarchies found within organized institutions and beliefs. My interests explore the sacred, the discarded, the desire for a higher power, and the beautiful relationship they all can share.
