In seventh grade religion class at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School, I learned Sister Louise’s interpretation of the Third Commandment: to name God is to diminish Him. All preaching, therefore, works against truth. That idea blew my young queer mind open and released me from years of guilt and confusion. Atheism is not faithlessness it is faith in one's self. 

Wood grain grounds the work and provides structure that allows me to build layers of loose gestures, splatters, pencil marks, fluorescent color, and optical striping, illustrating my theory of life: order plus chaos, multiplied by time, equals life. Balancing warning with temptation, warped depth and light place the work between 2D and 3D, cartoon and icon, puzzle and signature.

My apprenticeship to my ailing father, the brutality of childhood in Southern Massachusetts, my Catholic upbringing as a queer kid, and my love of the natural world converge here—an answer shaped for confusing times.