statement

Southern Gothic, the term, is partly defined as the exploration of socially induced issues and the act of revealing the cultural character of the American South. With my current body of print-works on mounted wood panel, I have been reinterpreting various places on the periphery of many Southern towns and cities that are, for lack of a better phrase, on the fringe of society. Ideas of blurred urban and rural county lines coupled with backyard, familial "up-to-no-good" all grace the compositions in a tongue and cheek manner. Additional thematic interests are incorporated into the visuals, including socio-economics, race relations, religious hypocrisy, literary references, and environmental planning. These topics within the works allow for an even and unbiased playing field where all are equal and the "shirt off the back" Southern character coexists with an "ass-kicking" do-it-yourself aesthetic.

As historian Bill Ferris states, "The American South is a geographical entity, a historical fact, a place in the imagination…the region is often shrouded in romance and myth, but its realities are as intriguing, as intricate, as its legends." Aligned with Ferris's statement, the works of Southern Gothic represent an honest social commentary on the Southern landscape and way of life. I attribute this type of mysterious archetype, the good-ole-boy renegade buddy system as part of my personal identity. Hand painted signs full of innocently misspelled lingo, slowly if not already dilapidated architecture, and lines upon lines of generationally inherited hand-built homes are but a few of the autonomous monuments of the place I call home- the American Gothic South.  

Though screenprint is the main process utilized, pochoir like techniques, graphite inclusions and hand-applied acrylics are all current modes of process that are incorporated into this work. A large number of folks are intrigued by the visual outcomes that very much resemble painting; I execute like a painter, follow traditional modes of painterly application (scrape, drip, sand, brush)... however, as a life-long printmaker, my modus operandi of working on wooden panel allows for far more freedom, happenstance, and experimentation than a traditional sheet of paper. In addition, many bits of found wood, which are normally salvaged to make support panels, are finding their way into the actual compositions, making for a more believable, trompe l'oeil surface textures.

bio

born: 1977, Slidell, Louisiana

education

University of Mississippi, MFA, 2004

University of Southern Mississippi, BA, 2000

selected awards/honors

Josie Otwell Award, Janet Turner Print Museum, Chico, California, 2012

Acquisition and Juror's Award, Pacific States Biennial, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 2008

selected publications

Visual South Issue/New Superstars of Southern Art; Oxford American Magazine, 2012

New American Paintings; No. 94, Southern Edition. Open Studio Press p. 28-31, 2011

Printmakers Today; Author, Jeffrey B. Snyder. Schiffer LTD, p. 13, 54-55. 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Keeping it Between the Ditches, Southside Gallery, Oxford, Mississippi, 2013

Southern Good Shit, Flood Gallery Fine Arts, Asheville, North Carolina, 2012

Southern Gothic, Southside Gallery, Oxford, Mississippi, 2011

selected group shows

Introductions, M Contemporary, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2013

Clemson National Drawing and Printmaking Exhibition, Lee Gallery, Clemson, South Carolina, 2013

O What a Night!, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012

Atlanta Print Biennial International Exhibition, Barbara Archer Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 2011