Wide-frame Work
Oil on canvas, 24.5 × 12 inches
Totemic Immigration reflects on how complex issues are often reduced to symbols, images, and narratives that shape perception more than understanding. Rendered through layered, totem-like forms and fragmented figures, the painting explores how meaning is constructed—and sometimes distorted—within a fractured cultural landscape. The vessels and faces suggest movement, transition, and the uncertainty that accompanies new beginnings. Rather than offering conclusions, the work invites viewers to pause, set aside preconceptions, and consider what shared ground might emerge when we approach difference with openness and care. At its core, the piece reflects on coexistence, dialogue, and the mindful effort required to move forward together.
Linocut print
Inspired by medieval bestiary illustrations of the 11th–13th centuries, this linocut channels an older visual language once used to explain the natural world through story and symbol. The central figure embodies the spirit of the forest, surrounded by creatures that suggest watchfulness, continuity, and quiet balance. By giving nature a recognizable face, the piece invites viewers to reflect on humanity’s enduring bond with the living world and the often unseen relationships that sustain it. Both familiar and mythic, the image speaks to nature’s power, mystery, and presence just beyond our notice.
Totem of the Swarm is a 16 × 25 mixed-media work on wood panel that explores the increasingly blurred boundary between nature and technology. The bee—an ancient symbol of interdependence and survival—serves as the focal point, standing in for the rapid “pollination” of technology through every layer of contemporary life.
The piece reflects the dual role technology plays in our world: a tool for stewardship and preservation, and simultaneously a mechanism of exploitation and harm. Street-art–inspired marks and gestures reinforce this tension. Like graffiti itself, the imagery exists in a liminal space—celebrated when sanctioned, rejected when not—mirroring how innovation is embraced or condemned depending on who controls it and to what end.
Totem of the Swarm asks the viewer to consider not only how quickly systems spread, but who benefits, who bears the cost, and what is altered in the process.