This body of work includes medium-to large-scale oil paintings, small oil studies, and a collection of silkscreens.

After my father passed away two years ago, I began rediscovering my childhood. I looked through old photographs and videos, spent time in my childhood home, and started thinking more deeply about the people, places, and experiences that shaped me. In many ways, those same influences have also shaped how I raise my own children.

The colors, textures, and objects in the work are rooted in my experience of growing up in Florida and the South. I want the work to bring back a sense of nostalgia while encouraging viewers to think about their own childhoods and the things, both good and bad, that shaped who they are.

Both personal and familiar, Instant Grit is a reflection on nostalgia, place, and the beautiful roughness of growing up.