bound and determined

We are born with the seeds of ourselves but it is our surroundings and circumstances that shape how we grow. Like a sapling, we might find ourselves in a place where we can stretch and flourish or we might be pinched in a too-small container. We might be nourished by our community or stunted by someone else’s shadow. We bear the signs of plentiful years and the scars of rough winters.

This body of work, examples of which are shown here, explores the ongoing process of how we are constructed and shaped – for better and for worse – by our interactions with the places and people that surround us. The expressive-figurative paintings and drawings are a response to the tension that can exist between the shape we want our lives to take and the way that we are pushed and pulled by our circumstances.