Expect Good News
The Universal Weight of Abandonment
Abandonment Songs is a series of paintings that explores the emotional, physical, and existential weight of abandonment—not as a singular act, but as an unfolding process. These works embody both the residue of what has been left behind and the transformation that emerges in the wake of loss. Abandonment, in this context, is not merely an absence; it is a presence of what lingers, what erodes, and what reconstitutes itself over time.
Abandonment is an experience both deeply personal and profoundly universal. It exists in the quiet spaces of memory, in the remnants of forgotten places, in the shifting boundaries of human relationships, and in the natural cycles of erosion and renewal. We encounter it in histories of displacement, in the ruins of architecture, in the ghostly echoes of extinct languages and lost cultures, and even in the landscapes where nature reclaims what was once built. This series seeks to evoke that shared sense of loss and transformation, asking: What does it mean to leave or be left? And what remains in the wake of departure?
I Need You, And You Need Me
Materiality and the Residue of Abandonment
In Abandonment Songs, materiality plays a crucial role in storytelling. Beyond paint and canvas, each piece incorporates found objects—makeup, nail polish, earring studs, embedded needles, sewn-in dangling threads - elements of adornment and care that carry traces of the body, identity and intimacy. These objects once meant to enhance and beautify, now exist as relics of what has been cast off, lost, or forgotten.
The act of embedding or stitching these materials into the surface reflects the tension between permanence and impermanence. Loose threads dangle like unfinished narratives, while an earring stud and needles pierce the canvas like wounds that have not fully healed. Nail polish and makeup, once tools of self-presentation, become symbols of transformation —fragments of identity left behind. These objects, like memories hold presence even in absence.
Through these materials, Abandonment Songs does not just depict abandonment—it embodies it. The surfaces of the paintings become sites of excavation, where traces of human touch, care, and neglect remain visible. The layers of paint obscure and reveal, much like the way time buries and resurfaces past experiences.Yellow
Please Recede
Gesture and Surrender
Each painting in this series is an act of relinquishment—of control, of certainty, of the need for resolution. Brushstrokes arrive with urgency, only to be buried, scraped away, or left raw, as if caught in the tension between holding on and letting go. Layers accumulate and dissolve, mirroring the way memory and presence shift over time.
Some marks feel like ghosts of gestures, barely visible, while others insist on their survival. In this way, Abandonment Songs becomes a record of what remains after release.I May Not Find The Words
A Beautiful View
The Emotional Weight of Absence
Abandonment is not neutral—it carries echoes of grief, solitude, and displacement, but also the possibility of freedom, of wildness left to its
own devices.
Within this series, color plays a central role in articulating these emotional registers. Washed-out hues suggest something eroded over time, while stark contrasts evoke severance, the rupture of departure. Some paintings lean into fragmentation, others into the expansiveness of emptiness. These variations reflect the many shades of abandonment—not just loss, but what loss makes space for.
While abandonment is often associated with pain, there is also a generative quality to it. A space left empty allows for something new to emerge. In this way, Abandonment Songs does not only mourn what is gone; it also acknowledges what can arise
in the absence.
May You Be Well When You Hear This
Songs Without Words: A Shared Language of Loss and Renewal
Though abstract, these paintings function as songs— wordless compositions of mark, color, and space that speak to the rhythm of presence and disappearance.
They ask: What does it mean to be left behind? What does it mean to let go? What forms rise in the wake of absence?
These are questions that reach beyond the self, touching on the shared human experience of impermanence. Abandonment Songs invites
viewers to bring their own memories, their own histories of loss and change, into the work. Whether it is a forgotten place, a lost connection,
or a transformation beyond one’s control, abandonment is a story we all carry.
This series is an offering—a space to reflect on what we have lost, what still lingers, and what has yet to be found.