I paint empty rooms to examine the conventions and history of portraiture. My interest in portraiture is inextricably linked to my investigation of the history of art and where my practice fits into conventions of style, content, and techniques of painting. The absence of a figure in my work invites a narrative about the person who may inhabit these spaces and simultaneously makes room for the viewer to inhabit my paintings, not only visually but also psychologically. Unlike an interior decorator however, I am interested in using the interior as a vessel to ask questions about the failure of aesthetic environments and expose the complex history behind décor, style, and paint. Instead of positing answers as to what makes a “good” painting, I am interested in presenting questions about the traditions of criteria. Using often kitsch or lowbrow materials, I explore abstraction as a tool to allow images to fall apart. The presence of something like spray paint next to oil paint over Crayons vitalizes surface through showing the multiple ways a human body can touch a canvas. These varying materials also speak to the complicated canonization of aesthetic quality. I use just about anything I can find with color or texture to put on canvas in an effort to examine the materiality of painting and materialism.