When I began the journey of my thesis I would have told you “I paint words.” At the time I was working on creating an alphabet of all black geometrically abstracted letters. However as I’ve gotten further down this rabbit hole I’ve realized that I was using the idea of an alphabet as a safety blanket, as a way to justify making all black work for me when really all I wanted was to make black paintings. I felt guilty getting a painting done in 4 hours and saying it was “finished.” All this laborious gesticulation of the alphabet was really just an excuse to make black paintings. What I've been doing was ultimately an excuse for myself, and the lack of “content”, specifically subject and form, was something I was nervous about abandoning. Up to this point I had been painting things like people, objects, and most recently letters of the alphabet, but as every artist eventually longs for a change in scenery, I moved to Italy, and I too eventually tired of these methods. I just wanted to paint it black.

On average I spend a little less than 40 hours a week in the actual studio, the rest of my time is in class, reading about art, or consuming media. However I lump this all into my process, as I have found myself finding inspiration in everything I do. On the ride to my internship, I am feeling the cobblestone vibrate through the bike frame up to my palms, that's my surface. Standing on the Ponte Vecchio and watching the rowers go up and down the river, that’s my light. And having a party with all my new friends in Italy, that’s my finish. In a world of constant exchanges of information and stimulation, everything has to be taken into account as a potential resource for creation. All these experiences are color and every color needs to be accounted for; When I mix all these “colors” together, I get black.