The second RavenJinn gets inked!

Based on Apkallu figures of Ancient Assyria, these works were drawn to scale and digitally printed upon clay-board panels. Though their significance is not fully understood, the Apkallu figures are widely considered to be a protective presence. These demigod figures were not necessarily benevolent or malevolent - just as likely to fuck with you than help you. Though they existed everywhere, they were invisible, considered as ‘beings that were concealed to the senses.’

Ink and clay on wood.

I’m interested in highlighting what defines us as - in the ways that can be perceived, and the ways that are hidden from view. Recent bodies of work include visualizations of an individual’s microbial cloud (based on found police mugshot photographs), portraits focusing on the hands of a subject, as well as work informed by ancient Mesopotamian imagery and classical Greek mythology. Narrative remains central to my work. I aim to create images that tell a story. I'm drawn to old legends, myths, stories from ancient texts. Enduring narratives speak to humans as a species - our creative need to explain why things are, to entertain, or to just spin a yarn. Images and symbols from these stories often find their way into my work.

Microbial Mugshot

Recent research in the human microbiome has concluded that every individual’s microbiome extend past their body; that we all exist within an imperceptible ‘microbial cloud’ which is as unique to each person as their fingerprints or DNA. Intrigued by this research, I created a body of work based on found mugshots of the 1920’s, complete with each person’s microbial profile. Created a few years before the onset of the Covid pandemic, I was fascinated by our unique individual invisible profile, and if available or visible to everyone, what it might describe about a person. I was also interested in the inherent narrative formed by these drawings (later turned into silkscreen prints). Who were these people? What were they accused of? Did their microbiome contribute to their accusations, or protect them from what was to come?

The majority of these works are part of a larger series that I created at Kala Art Institute from 2017 to 2019. As an Artist-In-Resident and later as a Parent-Artist Fellow, I had the pleasure of working in the former ketchup factory in West Berkeley.

Mano Series

I’m interested in the story that is told through an image. And like the microbes in the works described above, I wanted to tell the story of a person in an indirect manner. I began making portraits featuring the hands of those around me. Not only do hands tell a story about a person - the kind of work or activities they are involved in- but through gestural movement speak to the way a person communicates. How the fingers are held, like the posture of the body, are a unique signature of the individual. Focusing on the hands of my subjects, I began looking for specific personality traits, or a trace of their personal history that could be fashioned into an abstract descriptive image.

Minotaur

I love old stories. Some try to explain the world, some attempt to teach hard truths. The Minotaur story does neither.

I feel for the Minotaur. He got dealt a bad hand, really a prisoner himself. I imagined the artwork he would have put up in the Labyrnth: a portrait of him as an adolesecent, as an older gentlemen, as well as scenes from home.