Growing up in rural Indiana affected not only my art, but my way of thinking. I process emotion and understanding through landscape, often disappearing into the textures and hidden colors of an environment that feels alive to me.

My work centers on three primary subjects: The inner landscape of the mind, the character Fish Corn, and the male nude, sometimes combining the two. The work taught me to dial into the inner landscapes of my own mind, often revealing things about myself during the process. Through the landscape series, I have processed self-acceptance, Midwest nostalgia, and grief. Rather than a simple plein air, I want my audience to be drawn into a complex experience where they are either transported somewhere entirely new or find themselves relating to the work, particularly through my Fish Corn series. The aforementioned Fish Corn came to represent my identity in the Midwest.

When viewers look at my landscapes, they will find elements of space split into different contrasts to mirror my state of mind. I translate everyday human thoughts into geometric forms, mirroring the structured, repeating lives we are all forced to live. My mind is never a single consistent thought, nor is it ever solely present in one place. Even within my own work, I am not entirely present there. I often discover a piece's meaning during the journey of creating it, constantly incorporating the idea of an interrupted thought.

Fish Corn carries a concept similar to the inner landscapes, marking the evolution of that series. Over time, Fish Corn shifted focus from grand, beautiful landscapes of deserts and mountains to the subtlety of the Midwest. Fish Corn is a character developed to express memories of the Midwest as well as complex thoughts filled with symbolism.

The male nude is another constant subject in my work. As a female artist, I want to shed light on what I find interesting and flip the historical narrative of the female nude painted by a male artist. In other words, I like men, and I believe they can be depicted as an object of beauty. The nude body fascinates me with its complexity; when I draw men, I fixate on the unique shapes the form creates, allowing it to generate its own abstract movements. This way of thinking is also incorporated in my more abstract landscapes.

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My primary medium is pastel. While most artists use pastels in a loose, impressionistic style, I approach the medium through tight, detail-oriented drawings that often take months to complete. I work with pastel because I appreciate its fragile nature, as though I am creating something as delicate as a butterfly's wing.

Through my creative process, I taught myself how to be kind to my whole self in front of the easel, something that is typically harder to do in the everyday lives we live. Here, I can take the time to understand my own philosophies of the world through a visual lens. The medium I use draws a parallel between its own fragile nature and the fragility of all life's moments; at the end of the day, it all trickles away to dust. I hope people find beauty in what I create and, in doing so, embark on a journey to understand their own person.

November 26 Guest Artist Umella June