Dwellers

​

Dwellers is an ongoing series of colored pencil works that explore how individuals inhabit and navigate shifting physical, psychological, and relational spaces. The work considers space not as a fixed setting, but as something shaped by trauma, power, intimacy, and self-presentation. Figures are often contained within constructed environments, emphasizing how people are positioned, observed, and defined by the spaces they occupy. Although none of the subjects are specific individuals, they evoke a collective sense of familiarity and recognizability as if they exist within a shared cultural memory.

​

Across the series, recurring motifs such as exaggerated eyes, lips, blush, and handwritten captions function as both markers of identity and disruptions to the image. The captions, intentionally external to the compositions, introduce tones that range from humorous and disarming to direct and vulnerable. This interplay creates a tension between the bright, stylized, and at times kitsch surface aesthetics and underlying emotional complexity.

​

The works move through different states of inhabitation. Some focus on individual containment, where the subject is physically and psychologically “boxed” into space. Others explore relational distance, depicting figures who share environments yet remain emotionally disconnected. More recent works shift inward psychologically, treating trauma as a space in itself, to be navigated internally, while also introducing moments of instability, where figures appear to slip, transition, or move beyond the spaces that hold them.

​

Materially, the series combines drawing, painting, and layered construction. Figures are often cut, reassembled, and mounted onto surfaces, creating subtle depth and shadow that activate the surrounding space. Framing plays a critical role, reinforcing both containment and presentation. Together, these works examine not only how people exist within spaces, but how they negotiate, endure, perform within, and ultimately respond to them.