Byrdcliffe Residency

Woodstock, NY 2023

During my residency at Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, New York, I embarked on a new figurative series inspired by the vibrant tapestry of Coney Island and its iconic Mermaid Parade. My intent is to capture the kaleidoscope of exciting and introspective moments from these settings through acrylic paintings. Like the city, I aim for this series to be diverse and all-encompassing. The parade’s dreamlike quality offers rich symbolic narratives about human strengths and weaknesses, ideally suited to my intentions to continue with this series. It was essential to portray a diverse series of women and female-presenting people. I wanted to explore their divergent emotions projecting power, strength, vulnerability, joy, gay pride, and women's power in multiple ways. I want the viewer to get a sense of the parade as a summer utopia - a blend of mindsets from every culture with a hippie, artsy sensibility, and elements of chaos.