Studio Practice – Works in Progress

Ancestral Portals: Studio Practice, Process, and Works in Progress

Considering Devotion, Memory, and Ancestry

The working title of my current series is Ancestral Portals. In this body of work, I move through devotional objects and printed images to honor recently passed friends as well as long-dead relatives. Much like a stained-glass window, each piece is intended to spark reflection and allow space for their memories to shine through.

A Cyclical, Material-Driven Process

The layered collage and painting process follows a familiar cycle: searching through books, cutting with an X-Acto, gluing fragments, overpainting, and masking with tape or stencil. As these layers accumulate, the materials begin to interact in ways that surprise me. This tension between improvisation and control is central to the joy of making the work.

Because I am a graphic designer by trade, the world of books, printing, and paper feels like an intuitive space to draw from. The physicality of printed images—ink on paper, halftones, margins, the edges of pages—naturally folds into my approach to collage.

Reimagining Religious Imagery Through Print

I was raised within a very free form of Christianity, specifically UCC Congregationalism. As a result, heavy religious structures were never part of my upbringing. Religious art, objects, and buildings were simply beautiful to me. Appropriating religious imagery through deconstructed books and historical prints becomes a way to appreciate the beauty, skill, and discipline of the original artists.

This is not an act of negation. Instead, it is a way to reinvent these images and create new personal meaning, closer to my own experience. The method resembles the way hip hop samples jazz. For instance, Madlib’s Shades of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note stands as a remarkable example of sampling used to create something new from something deeply rooted.

Moving Between Materials and Histories

Flowing between materials and genres—much like moving from jazz to hip hop—these collaged paintings give me the room to explore thoughts on ancestry, both recent and distant. The act of combining printed fragments with abstraction, linework, and color becomes a way to consider what endures and what shifts in the process of remembering.

Helen Molesworth once wrote of Noah Davis, “It was clear to me that he was more powerful from the other side.” That idea continues to echo while I work through these pieces.