In the absence of sound, the human body becomes a frantic architecture of meaning.
My work is an inquiry into the architecture of non-verbal communication and the unspoken narratives of the human experience.
Through the tactile and expressive application of oil, I create figurative portraits that dismantle and reassemble the human form, capturing a subject’s inner life through the dynamic language of gesture and posture.
My practice explores the language of the body, what could be called a form of anthroposemiotics, where meaning resides in movement, silence, and nuance, a central theme in modern artistic discourse.
The expressive and fragmented nature of my brushwork is not merely a stylistic choice; it is the physical embodiment of a perception shaped by silence.
The visible strokes become a language on the canvas, a direct translation of the over-expressive gestures that define my understanding of human interaction. My process is an energetic and deliberate act of building with a single medium. I work exclusively in oil, using gestural brushwork to create a fragmented yet cohesive surface. The slowness of oil painting and the physicality of building form with a single medium reassert the importance of presence, touch, and the tangible humanity of the subject.
My work is informed by my experience growing up deaf and originally speaking sign language. I have a heightened sensitivity to the subtle cues that define human connection. My perception has been shaped, not by reliance on sound or conventional social interactions, but by an acute awareness of expressive gesture. My paintings are an attempt to give form to this silent language, focusing on the expressions and movements that are often overlooked. The work is a dialogue with the viewer, inviting them to investigate their own modes of communication and to discover the rich, unspoken stories that reside in every human character. My art asks the observer to listen with their eyes, as deaf people do.
My current practice is a rigorous technical investigation into the haptic quality of oil paint as a surrogate for vocal intonation. By prioritizing the physicality of the mark, I seek to elevate the 'silent' cues of the human form into a dominant visual language. This work operates within the lineage of gestural figuration, yet it is distinct in its pursuit of anthroposemiotics—treating the canvas not just as a surface for a likeness, but as a site for decoding the complex, non-verbal transactions that define our social existence. In every work, the tension between the fragmented brushstroke and the cohesive form reflects the fragility and resilience of human connection observed through the lens of the Deaf Gain.