Wheat Paste Walls, 2019
I am constantly butting up against the “shoulds” of how I thought my life would be versus how my life actually is. I try to understand these “shoulds,” to pick them apart, to figure out where they are coming from, to understand them, to find ways to utilize those ideas and emotions in a creative way. In these three sculptures pieces, I “painted” with paper. I manipulated billboard advertisements, gay porn, family photographs with my own photographs. They are the “shoulds” I so often fight against. They are the foundation, the basis of that work: society telling me how I am supposed to feel, how I am supposed to be, what is going to make me happy, telling me how I am supposed to love and fuck and connect. I ripped, pulped and pasted these images, transforming them into an abstract collage.