The marrow of my conceptual interest derives from my experiences navigating the structures of late capitalism and the subsequent realities of everyday life. Through crafted visual metaphors, I seek to examine the complex sociological implications of class identity, white supremacy, nationalism, and patriotism. These complexities are then distilled into digestible sculptural entities that aim to challenge established perspectives and presumptions; currently, my work aims to magnify the ironic mundanity of the many falsities/failures/shortcomings of the so-called “American Dream.”

 Materiality is central to these investigations; from acquisition at the edge of the capital market to the hyper-specificity of material dialogues and economies within the work, my practice operates in a way that regards material as the essence of reality. I consider the cultural contexts and histories of my chosen materials to be especially relevant in this respect, as they inform my understanding of conceptuality. As is true of my lived experience, my practice operates only within my own means and usually by my own hand. I favor processes rooted in DIY sensibilities and accessible modes of making, often using fabrication techniques inspired by Appalachian craft traditions. These gestures of handcraft utilize repetitive manual labor in ways that mirror the blue-collar work of my background as an Amazon warehouse worker, a sanitation technician, and a farmhand. This labor-conscious methodology resulted not out of mere necessity, but rather for the sake of authenticity. The presence of my hand in the work acts as resistance to increasing industrialization and automated fabrication. In a world of manufactured objects, the handmade remains quintessentially human. In this regard, I classify my own labor as a medium that is crucial to the integrity of my practice. 

With these foundational attributes, my current work focuses on remixing familiar relationships between form, scale, and material to make visible the infrastructures of social and economic inequity, reframing our understanding of American idealism. As a product of the American South, I feel a certain urgency to investigate how cultural perspectives develop and shape the ways in which we relate to one another.