Selected Portfolio Works

This piece represents the ongoing cycle of exhaustion from the chaos of never-ending school work. Delirious, she is violently forced to stay awake. Her teacher pins her eye open and grabs her by the hair, which conveys the sense of torture she feels. The swirl of papers is like her vision tunneling as she becomes more and more like a zombie due to sleep deprivation. I chose the unsettling and vibrant color combination to punctuate this drama. The colors scheme was inspired by my admiration of Maria Guimaraes' work, who uses unusual colors to paint people.

Year: 2024

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 8x10

This piece is about breaking out from societal expectations and highlighting that high-school students are multidimensional people and should not be not defined solely by their GPAs. I chose drab colors to depict the conformity that is required for young people to succeed by today's standards. The "my name is" sticker covers their faces, erasing all traces of who they are as individuals, and replaces it with their GPA. I have seen how this structure dehumanizes the youth of today, contributing to mental health challenges in my generation. The girl defiantly steps out of line, wears colored clothing and removes the name tag from her face to reclaim her individuality.

Year: 2024

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 16x20

This piece showcases the realization that you are never going to be as curious, naïve, happy, and innocent as you were when you were a child. This piece was part of my sustained investigation for my AP Art class; the theme was growing up. The crayon scheme background is bright and simple-- it represents the uncomplicated world of childhood, which seems calm, under control and happy in a child's eyes. There is a hint of sadness in her as she stares into the foreground of the picture, which is painted in acrylic with dark, rough and realistic details. As I approach adulthood, I feel like I am slowly being dragged into the complexities of the real world. Especially post-pandemic, the present is in sharp focus-- everything feels complicated, scary, and a little out of control. Overall, this represents the time in your life when you no longer feel like you're a little kid, physically and emotionally.

Year: 2023

Medium: Mixed Media (Acrylic, Crayon)

Size: 11x14

This piece is of a baby heading off to work in a suit that doesn't fit, surrounded by a world moving too fast to keep up. This represents the internal struggle of both wanting to grow up, but being nervous about and feeling unprepared for the responsibilities ahead in adulthood. The toddler is has an ill-fitting adult suit, lifting a heavy suitcase, and wearing a hat twice the size of his head- he is clearly not ready, but he is dressed the part. The other adults pass by in a hurry, not noticing the concerns of the ill-prepared child. I used charcoal to represent the flurry of the outside world, while capturing every wrinkle of the poorly fitted suit. I find this piece to be both sad and a little funny, as it accurately represents this important transition in a teenager's life.

Year: 2024

Medium: Charcoal

Size: 14x11

This piece is about longing for a true friend to talk to and finding that friend within yourself. In this work, the main character writes in her diary about her ideas, thoughts and troubles. Her diary becomes her friend and alleviates the loneliness she feels. This piece shows how expressing one's emotions can illuminate a path through the darkness to find joy and belonging.

Year: 2024

Medium: Mixed Media (Acrylic, Pen)

Size: 8x10

This painting is about a girl, surrounded by the judgment and watchful eyes of modern society (graffiti eyes), who chooses to find joy and freedom in herself, ignoring the expectations and criticisms of others. It is a message to find the beauty (flow, brightness) in the chaos (vandalism of nature). "Remember who you are" is something my mom always says to me to keep me centered. The painting is set in "Narnia", a real place that is a hidden hangout in Rancho Penasquitos Canyon, near San Diego.

Year: 2024

Medium: Oils

Size: 14x18

For this piece, I painted a teenager crowd surfing to represent the happy moments of growing up, drawn from my own experience at concerts. In this work I was exploring the use of a limited color palette to capture mood. This work is all about having the time of your life when you are young. At concerts, there is a feeling of chaos, but also unity, being accepted by peers, and fitting in. The guy being held up by the strangers in the crowd exemplifies this dynamic, and you can feel his exuberance. This snapshot in time is about finding your people in this world-- those who share common interests.

Year: 2023

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 16x20

This self-portrait is about who I am and how I see the world. It is based on a moment from a Pixies concert where I felt lost in the music and yet in tune with my complete self, free from the barrage of thoughts that percolate in my head.

To construct this piece, I used torn out newsprint as a base, which highlights both my love for pop culture and also how society helps shape the people we become. Layered on top of this, I painted a self portrait in acrylic. Finally, I wrote about friend issues, feelings about growing up, quotes I abide by, my wonders and curiosities about what happens next in life, thoughts swirling in my head about the world today. I aimed to paint the rawest version of me, with no concern for other people’s opinions. Just me, who I am, what I like, and what I think. This is just the way I see it.

Year: 2023

Medium: Mixed Media (acrylic, pen, newspaper)

Size: 8x10

This piece captures the possibilities that lie before us after graduation. I built the foreground and fence out of newsprint to symbolize the part of our lives that is already written. The graduate jumps the fence into a wide open world of possibilities. This area lacks newsprint and is replaced with vibrant acrylic colors on the horizon. The locks symbolize a graduation tradition.

Year: 2024

Medium: Mixed Media (Acrylic, pen, newspaper)

Size: 8x10

This still-life is of an assortment of kettles, plates, vases, and cloth. I enjoyed focusing on the details to capture the challenging textures and surfaces in every component of this piece. I explored how light bounces off one surface and onto neighboring items, the silkiness of the material, the roughness of the wheat. Despite the distinct nature of each object, there is a sense of harmony and unity between the different objects.

Year: 2023

Medium: Conte-Crayon

Size: 18x14

I used a picture from a family trip to Pismo Beach as an inspiration for this piece. I explored movement and motion using the seagulls, ocean, and ever changing clouds after the storm to capture this iconic scene.

Year: 2024

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 8x10

My intention was to show that there is beauty in imperfection and in the ordinary. What’s beautiful to me about this is that there are no smoke and mirrors (autotune, song writing assistance, fancy outfits, light shows, etc.) to distract to make the song/music cleaner and “better”. I think that music is beautiful when it is rough and it comes from your heart and your own creative mind.

Year: 2022

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 8x10

This mixed media piece represents the timelessness of art. In this work, I sought to combine my drawing and observational skills with graphic design elements. The green brush pen scene was from a still-life workshop, capturing a bust of the Greek philosopher, Cicero. Inspired by the ancient greeks amazing architecture, I recolored and layered an image of the aging colosseum behind the Cicero bust. Cicero is in color because his ideas are still shaping our world. Using Illustrator, I generated typography to fill the void with a quote from Cicero that resonates with me and captures the theme. I ironically chose to make the word 'long' short and the word 'short' tall to capture attention and make the viewer think about the idea presented.

Year: 2024

Medium: Mixed Media (Illustrator, Photoshop, Brush Pens)

Size: Width: 1306px Height: 1851px

This piece is an album cover concept for my band, The Crooked Straights, which I play the drums in and sing. The idea behind this album cover was to use color to display all different walks of life, using torn paper to represent the windows into people's worlds. I used photoshop to build the layered appearance, colors and textures. The cover is meant to showcase the unique character of individual lives to reveal what is happening behind the scenes. I was going for a 90's nostalgic feel with the color and typography choices.

Year: 2024

Medium: Photoshop

This piece is a poster for my band Crooked Straights. I took a picture of my bandmate/friend and I and broke it up into individual pieces and colored them to create a stained glass look.

This is a magazine spread for an existing article about vinyl records and a man that owns a record store. I took vinyl record pictures off of Unsplash and arranged them on InDesign. 

This piece was inspired by a Radiohead song called "Present Tense" which describes escaping the chaos of the world around you by focusing on what you love. I used my brush pen sketch of a graceful dancer as the centerpiece and layered in newspaper headlines to represent the chaotic world.  A glow emanates from the dancer along with the lyrics to the song to illustrate how the inner light can overcome the heaviness in the world.

Year: 2025

Media: Mixed Media (Photoshop, Illustrator, Brush Pens)

Size:  Width: 3600 px   Height: 3390px