Firstly, can you please tell our readers a bit about yourself (where you grew up in, how old are you, what visual references from your childhood have impacted your current practice, if any).

I lived all over up until I was ten - born in NYC and moved around a ton here, Philly, Virginia, Oklahoma, a few spots in upstate NY, then back to the Bronx and then New Jersey from fifth grade onwards, so I just tell people I’m from Jersey, since that’s where I spent all of what I consider my most formative years. And I have a ton of Jersey pride so I’m happy to say it, that’s definitely where I feel like I’m “from”. I’m 30.. Aside from periods of traveling and subletting, I’ve spent most of my adult life living in either NYC or Providence, RI - went back and forth a couple of times, but I’m based in Brooklyn (again) now.

Literally my biggest reference from my childhood that has influenced my current practice is Sailor Moon. I was always a kid who drew a lot, even from a really young age, but the first time I really started being kind of obsessed with drawing was in third or fourth grade when I got into Sailor Moon. It was on Cartoon Network at the time I think, the US version of it, but I actually didn’t have TV growing up so I didn’t get to watch it unless I was at a friend’s house, which probably made me even more obsessed with it, since it wasn’t easily accessible. I had a friend who lived down the block from my Grandma in Queens who we visited often, who was a little bit older than me, so maybe like 10 or 11, and had an insane collection of original Sailor Moon cards, in a big thick binder in those plastic card holder pages that people would use for like, baseball card collecting. I got so obsessed with the artwork, and with the collector’s aspect of it, and all the different characters and everything. Once I found out where she got them - in Chinatown in Manhattan - I would beg my dad to take me there to buy them constantly. So sometimes he would take me to Chinatown and we’d basically just wander around going into all these tiny little hobby/toy stores, basically we’d go into whichever one had any signs of Sailor Moon memorabilia in the window, and usually they had cards for sale. Some of them were just flat colored ones, others were holographic and some of them were stickers that you could peel off (which is basically like, sacrilegious if you’re a true collector but somehow added another element of preciousness to them).

So eventually I had my own binders full, and I would draw from them as reference, and created my own characters and filled notebooks with them. And from then on in my life I was an obsessive drawer. I always knew this was the genesis of when I really started making work constantly, but only in the last few years did I really realize how much those roots influenced my work aesthetically - the fact that I create these kind of larger than life superheroine-esque characters, most of my works are vertically oriented, with a single central figure in a position of power - they are kind of like larger than life trading cards. Once I put that together it just became more and more obvious to me. And kind of hilarious. But I am down with it and still completely obsessed with Sailor Moon, that never went away. Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon, is one of my favorite artists. Her original works, before the franchise became so huge that the work was being created by like, other artists and animators and translated and all that, are so incredible. They are these totally ethereal watercolor and airbrush paintings. They’re gorgeous. Literally one of my life goals is to own one, but I have no idea where to find them. If I could even just see them in person I’d probably cry.

Secondly, your paintings convey an uncanny mixture of cheerfulness and pain, they are aggressively playful - if your work could speak, would they whisper, shout or sing? what would they be saying? what would you say it is important for viewers to know about the content of your work?

My work is all about duality - the duality of my experience of womanhood, in obvious ways - pleasure and plain, joy and despair, embodiment and disassociation, to name a few. I am always trying to weave both of the extreme ends of the spectrum into the same image, because that experience is what feels relatable to me, being pulled in multiple extreme directions with regards to my humanity, my womanhood, my sexuality. I think if my words could speak they would be whispering, shouting, and singing at the same time, or be completely hoarse and raspy from trying to do all three simultaneously? I don’t know if I can tell you what my words would be saying… part of the reason why I paint and draw is because that’s the easiest mode of self expression for me, not articulating my feelings with words! I feel like I have a hard time with that, especially when it comes to the material that I’m trying to make work about. I feel it and I render it but I feel freaked out about trying to explain it out using language. I think it’s important for viewers to know how personal my work is. It’s incredibly diaristic, and it has to do with trying to translate my own experiences. When I say it’s about womanhood, I mean specifically my experience of womanhood. If and when I can touch on more universal feelings, or just moments that are relatable to other women - which I have been told happens - that is incredibly gratifying and cathartic and wonderful for me. And I do hope for that when I make the work, it’s part of why I put it out into the world rather than hold onto it for myself. But, the initial impulse to make the work is to expel and work through and translate my own experience, my own psyche, not to make work that attempt to speak for anyone else’s experiences. When they overlap though, and someone tells me that the work feels cathartic for them too, that they feel seen, and my attempts at trying to create visual beauty out of my own pain are somehow doing that for another person too - that’s like, the most amazing feeling for me.

Could you elaborate about your working process? for example, before even making would you are self-disciplined or not - do you plan before or do you work spontaneously? In other words, what is the balance between working from a sensual to an intellectual urge - do you think that feelings or rather concepts evoke your first step? do you like to see other artists' works before making or do would you say others influence you subconsciously more often?

I don’t plan my work out that much, but I do at least do a couple of brief sketches before I start painting. Usually it’s really, really quick and rough - a really fast pencil drawing just to figure out some poses and spacing, and i’ll take some notes on that paper or on another as far as if I have any ideas about specific colors I want to use or any other ideas I don’t want to forget as I work. Sometimes I make a more in-depth study before I paint, but that’s still just a pencil drawing, it will just be a bit more fleshed out than a rough sketch. Then I just tape up that drawing next to the bigger surface I’m going to be making the final work on, and I draw out the outlines in pencil while referencing the initial sketch. Sometimes this messes up the proportions when I scale up, but I don’t mind, and a lot of the time I actually really like how that looks. Sometimes I’ll project the original pencil drawing on the finished working surface if I really don’t want to mess up the proportions by trying to eyeball it, or if it’s huge. But usually I don’t project and I just eyeball it from the pencil study. My work does start with a lot of thinking though, and I take notes in a sketchbook and do quick sketches in there all the time when I have ideas - just really really fast notes and drawings to get it out of my head so I don’t forget. I’ll open up those books and look through them and choose ideas to flesh out when I’m trying to make new work. So I guess I would say the moments of like, inception that are the most organic are when I’m thinking and feeling about it and then get the quick ideas down in my sketchbook. But to use your words, I would also say the entire process of work for me is both sensual AND intellectual - since I don’t plan the works that much, that organic “feeling my way through it” vibe is there the entire time I’m painting, as I make decisions based on deeper impulses about what I’m trying to convey, but it’s also intellectual the entire time I’m working as those decisions are also technical ones having to do with aspects of painting like color and composition. I don’t usually look at other people’s work right before I work, it’s more just coming from an internal place when I start working. But I do spend time looking at books and at people’s work online often, when I’m feeling like I want a little boost in that way, to see what other people do and how they think about painting.

It would be interesting to hear what happens in your mind while working - tell us anything you would like to share.

I go through all manner of mental states while I’m painting. Usually in the beginning when I’m making the studies, I’ve already decided where I’m at emotionally with the work and what I”m trying to convey, when I was doing the initial stage of like, just thinking about what’s going on with me and what I feel strongly about making. So when I’m making the studies, I’m thinking about how I want the painting to look, not as much about my emotional state. But then once I start painting, I just really cycle through a lot of different vibes - sometimes when I”m painting I’m really present technically, other times I”m in a serious state of flow where I lose track of time and am just kind of.. in my subconscious, in a similar way to when you meditate and you’re having thoughts but just sort of noticing them and letting them go, letting them come up and then disappear without holding onto any of them. I also alternate between working in silence, working listening to music, or listening to talk radio depending on my mood, and that obviously affects what’s going on in my head too. I’ll usually opt to work in silence if I’m feeling like I need really intense technical focus. I’ll listen to music if I’m feeling like I’m gonna just be in that subconscious flow-y state. And I’ll listen to talk radio in a few different mental states, sometimes it’s something to just have int he background as white noise that I end up just tuning out and still getting into that flow state, and other times I’m really listening to it and just sort of turning my brain off in order to just execute different tasks without thinking about them too much. That can be helpful if I feel like I’ve been overthinking things. Which can be often.

In relation to collaboration - did you collaborate with other artists? if so, how was it? if not, how would you imagine it being like? would you find it possible to make many projects at the same time or do you find it hard to focus? what do you think of working with an assistant? do you let others' express their thoughts about your work before it is finished or do you do so in the end?

I haven’t collaborated too much with other artists, my work is so personal and specific that most of the times I’ve tried it just hasn’t really worked for me too well - nothing against or having to do with those artists, it’s just not the way I work and I learned that over the years, I think I’m better doing my own thing. I feel like I kind of get a mental block when I try to work on collaborations with other artists. That’s different than working on something with like, a designer, though. I can collaborate pretty well when the imagery is all up to me and the collaborative aspect is another part of the project, rather than literally trying to draw with someone, that’s what’s hard for me. I do work on multiple paintings at the same time, so no, it’s not hard for me to focus on multiple pieces at once. Usually I’m working on at least two paintings at the same time, if not more. I like having a few hanging in the studio and walking around to all of them at various points during the day.

I’ve never had an assistant to help me make my work. I don’t think I would want one to help me paint or draw - I want everything to be in my hand. I also just don’t see how it would be possible, my work is so stylized and on top of that it’s so personal that I feel having it made by someone else even partially would be nonsensical. I would love an assistant to help me do things like stretch canvases and prep surfaces regularly, but I haven’t been able to afford that on a regular basis so I still just do that myself for the most part. There have been a handful of times in the last year that I’ve been getting ready for a show and I’ve hired a friend to help me with things like that on a deadline, but nothing consistent. I do hope that someday I can afford someone to do that kind of menial prep work for me on a regular basis so I can just draw all damn day since that’s what I love doing!

I’m fine with people saying whatever they want to say to me about my work at any point during its progress - I love getting feedback, good or bad! That’s part of why I love using Instagram, I can post works in progress, or completed, and get feedback anytime! Kind of like an on call crit group.

Secondly, could you tell us about 6 artists that inspired you, whether from the same field of yours or a different one, and can you recommend any reading or listening material that has inspired you as well?

As far as people whose work I’ve been inspired by forever, I love Naoko Takeuchi, Paul Delvaux, Leonor Fini, Henry Darger, Gene Bilbrew, Marie-Louise Ekman.