During a business trip, I witnessed a child chuck an expensive plate halfway across the room and shatter into a million pieces. The act, committed with no desire to hide their emotion, was a sharp contrast from the artificial corporate environment I was in then. The grotesqueness of the child's display was a window into a primal unlearned version of us, unencumbered by expectation, politeness, or embarrassment. The raw honesty of the act sparked a period of reflection regarding the emotional suppression we develop as we are enculturated into society and enter the workforce's idiosyncratic ecosystem. Where feigned enthusiasm, forced smiles, and the deterioration of honesty result in success. 
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A work in progress, this series delves into the emotional landscape of the mythic "9 to 5".​ Informed by the Japanese visual languages, the genesis of my interest in art, the works manifest a simulacrum of the distorted inner child as it traverses foreign landscapes and dream-like states. Borrowing from Buddhist mythology, the creatures depicted are heavily influenced by the form of the"Jizo Bosatsu"(地蔵/womb of the earth), a guardian of children and travelers. Made during high points in my career, the visualize moments of tension felt during artificial celebrations provide a cathartic release as we walk along an often unavoidable path.

 

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