artist statement

Experiential in nature and a response to life's complexities, my work combines images, conversations, feelings and memories into visual narratives or abstract imagery simultaneously exploring ideas of the familiar and the mysterious. With a personal but also fundamental and universal character, themes such as time, space, home, the sense of place and belonging, transitional moments and identity appear in my work.

In painting, my images begin as unpredictable and unstable, almost random, but at a certain point messages and emotions begin to surface, connections between past and present emerge. A new eye, a different light, a feeling, an image, a conversation can change everything. By surrendering control of the surface and letting go of the narrative, the balance of incident and intention come into play. Layered abstraction, arbitrary forms and intuitive marks inform discovery. The narrative is maturing to become immersive and generative of encounter.

Until 2017, my painting has involved reconnecting to childhood, being able to see the world with nothing but curiosity and wonder. The main inspiration for this is that at one point in my life I lost contact with childhood. The home where I grew up in rural Romania burned, destroying everything-- our clothes, our photos, my artwork, our books, toys, everything. As an artist, essentially reconstructing my life as if through the eyes of a child has made everything become fantastic, and gives me the opportunity to share my enthusiasm with others. Changing the way I look at things continues to be part of my process and is an ongoing theme in my art.

In parallel with painting, I build 3D work, from shaped surfaces to installation, exploring the gallery space as a whole. My aim is to diversify the materials used in my practice and learn about what each one of them has to offer. I build site-specific works to create gestural marks in the gallery space, all while thinking about the viewer/interaction. I focus on works that have a sort of traveling aspect (it expands from floor to ceiling, the viewer looks down, front, around, up, confronts the work) – a kind of small journey and a moment to moment experience.

A recent investigation into my transitory life experiences brought me to think about two interconnected main themes, mental and physical liminal spaces and hybrid identity. I define liminality as a stage of active transformation that happens when one passes through decisive phases of life, a transitory experience formed naturally, by choice or through unexpected events. It occurs at an individual, societal, or ecosystemic level, and it is always accompanied by positive and negative aspects. I seek to combine media in innovative and unconventional ways, with the same enthusiasm that a child has when trying new things.