Debtfair

My works on panel are an intimate scale - in conversation with the traditions of Byzantine, Timurid and Safavid miniature painting. This allows me to work in very small studio spaces with minimal materials. Works in progress are portable for research-travel and a vagabond lifestyle. It is interesting to me that the transportability of historical miniature paintings in books contributed to their hybridizable nature- both in aesthetic and content, through gifting, conquest and translation. My work on panel takes part in this lineage. Seemingly to the contrary, a significant portion of my work is created at a very large scale. I work for weeks at a time, painting onsite directly onto the walls of exhibition locations with egg tempera that I prepare by hand while working to create fully immersive painting environments. This approach requires no studio space, no shipping, no purchase of large painting backgrounds, and no storage. Paint made by hand with pigments is not only exceptionally vivid and beautiful, but is also exponentially less costly. As the labour intensive and impermanent nature of my installation work is inseparable from its meaning; my economic reality has been indispensable in forming the heart of my practice today.