31. DREAM CASTLE IXCOTEL
Dream Castle Ixcotel
(2023) Oil on Panel, 8" x 6"
Something said to me often during 2022, was that there must be limits. I'm still not sure what it means, exactly, but I know what it means lower in my gut in the place where there are not words. After three months, another lockdown which was imposed was ending and there were more people on the streets of the neighborhood, I was allowed out for a morning run. I passed this house and imagined a different life I could live inside of its tall tower and sprawling third floor dance studio overlooking the gorge and beyond that, the park. Now that I have moved past those days I am starting to feel again, the limitlessness of my own life through my art.
29. SAILBOAT
Sailboat
(2023) Oil on Panel, 8"x6"
I have lived and worked in my home studio for twelve years this September. Through the years I have made small improvements to the apartment, namely, I retiled the bathroom and removed the wainscoting that surrounded the bathtub. The tub had been refinished poorly with a cheap home-kit and in its non-original state, it appeared to be carved entirely out of wood. I remember asking the landlord if the bathtub was steel or wood, like a sailboat. This mirror was later smashed to pieces by said landlord, accidentally, when I surprised him by returning home early from work during his unannounced visit inside of my home. I mourn its loss and the absence of the American Dream of homeownership. GRID, as a project, seeks to capture life unfiltered and without curation, in contrast to a social media grid, which never reflects real life.
