The following images are a selection of works I completed while studying at Burren College of Art in Co. Clare, Ireland. They are each simply named Memory; during my time living and working in the wild landscape of the Western Coast of Ireland, I discovered that photographing the world around me, and then returning to those images in painting them, was a profound way for me to internalize the landscape around me.

These images are a record of my senior thesis exhibition, completed at Clark University in Spring 2016. My artist statement for the body of work is as follows:

These paintings are love letters to the places I have called home, and to the moments in which I experience that relationship most deeply. I begin by taking pictures of my neighborhood, and then I sit with the moments captured in those images for hours at a time, translating the photographic detail into oil on canvas. Their small size is both a reflection of the closeness I feel with these places, and an opportunity for me to re-enter my relationship with them in one meditative sitting. This process pushes me to delve deeper into the nature of home, and to examine how and why a thick tangle of electrical wires or a dappling of late afternoon sun feels so meaningful to me in these landscapes.

My full written thesis is available here.

For me, photography functions primary as a means to an end: I pick up my camera to record a moment more solidly than I could in memory, or to capture a scene that I someday hope to paint. Regardless, I occasionally feel that the images captured are able to stand on their own. The photos below are collected from the past few years, primarily during travel or other periods of explortation.

Painting solidifies and honors memories in a way that few other things can. The following are a selection of oil paintings, based on photographs of myself and my own family.