My artistic expression is informed by my love for mystery and magic. In all things, I search for the unspoken, the unseen, the unknown. I believe strongly in the power of analyzing dichotomies and honoring all perspectives in pursuit of truths and their multiplicities. And because of this, in both my artistic work and life, I am drawn to nuance, subtlety, and whispers. My interpretation of the world and the way it shows up in my art is through attempts to invoke inspiration and wonder in others. In my work, I use nature and philosophy to discuss my perspectives on life in a way that promotes inquiry and curiosity. My greatest desire is for my work to fill people with both skepticism and wonder. I think humanity’s ability to witness life objectively and to decipher meaning from it is essential, and I want to provide a space for critical thinking, contemplation, meditation, and wonder because I feel that these are the things quickly being lost to time in the digital age. With confirmation bias and misinformation at every turn, nothing feels real, and everything feels invasive. I have always been incredibly sensitive to anything that feels manipulative or disingenuous because I want to be united with others through truths that support everyone’s well-being. I find nature to be the easiest conduit to channel my ideas through because of both its neutrality and its power to change, which I think speaks directly to justice and humanitarian causes by opening people’s hearts to different perspectives and objective truths that can unite us all.  My artistic process is an interrogation of the world around me as well as my own psyche. I have an inclination towards the shadowy parts of life. I am drawn to ideas that speak to duality, shatter perspectives, call to action, draw out the unknown, and seep into the subconscious: making them impossible to ignore. Ideas that haunt. There have been many philosophies and aspects of nature that have felt haunting to me, which I have explored in my recent studio projects. I think of my own creative process as both a conjuring and a distillation. My methodologies focus on the suspension of reality, the immersion of the viewer in an environment, and the invocation of the force which I feel underscores everything in life and its portrayal through different concepts. In the past year, I have made a transition from exploring art that is static in nature to work that is full of movement and experienced as an installation. This shift happened naturally as I realized what I was trying to say with my art, and more importantly, how I wanted it to be experienced. My art has been most informed by my studies of scientific discoveries and observation of natural phenomena that directly translate to ancient philosophical concepts. Without ever having heard a word about Plato’s Cave Allegory, my most recent project was based on my observance of reflections in puddles and the way they distort reality and reflect a seemingly different version of it. My project became directly intertwined with Plato’s philosophy after researching the topic and discovering that my ideas are, in fact, not unique, which I love. It makes me hopeful to think that there is a force that exists eternally, which encourages all of us to arrive at the same conclusions and objective truths if we are quiet enough to listen. And so, I let my artistic explorations and ideas be led by this force and flow like water into whatever vessels will best hold them. I believe this scholarship will uniquely benefit me by alleviating the financial stress that has been put on my family within the past year. Last year, my mom lost her job unexpectedly and remained unemployed for almost a full year, which led to a dramatic change in my family’s financial situation. Although both my parents work, my mom’s income primarily supports us. Because of the cost of tuition at Cornish being so high, I grew worried about being able to continue my education at Cornish. Financially, my family has been impacted significantly, and it feels like there has been a looming burden over our heads about figuring out how we can afford to pay off student debt. Because of the timing of my mom’s job loss with the FAFSA, I was also unable to qualify for work-study to make extra income that could support the cost of materials for my art projects or costs related to school during the year. As a full-time student, and more specifically an art student, it’s extremely difficult to be fully committed to art projects and academics while also attempting to work a job outside of school because of scheduling conflicts and a lack of the ability to be involved in events and opportunities that are beneficial to my goals in my career as an artist. This scholarship would be life-changing for me and my family to alleviate the constant financial stress that is present in our lives, and allow me to focus fully on my academics and my artistic endeavors so that I can achieve my biggest dream of solving humanitarian issues and elevating cultural consciousness through my art. I feel that this scholarship is a unique opportunity for not only my academic strengths and artistic pursuits to be acknowledged, but also to truly share the values that lie at the heart of my work—hope, unity, and a deep love for both nature and humanity. Studying art is vital to me because I get to be involved in a unique academic community that cultivates ingenuity, exploration, and critical thinking through creativity. Learning how to nurture your own creativity and think critically and freely is a skill that benefits every profession. At Cornish College of the Arts, I have been given the space to be critiqued as well as to give critique, which I think is one of the most valuable skills anyone can build. The way that artists are taught critique, especially at Cornish, is so special when everyone participates openly, consciously, and fully because of our diversity of artistic backgrounds and perspectives. To contemplate and to communicate with an open mind is deeply necessary to society, and studying art cultivates the ability to do these things and have critical conversations that promote the kind of revelations and healing that our world needs. Being able to explore so many different mediums and add skills to my toolbox with the resources that are provided to me through my education is invaluable to my development as an artist, and I am so grateful to be afforded the opportunity.  Someone who has heavily inspired my artistic journey is the musician José González. I found his music in 2017 after watching and listening to the soundtrack of what became my favorite movie of all time, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Instrumental music has long been my favorite genre as a violinist, but I dove into González’s discography and found poetry and prose that shaped my worldview and love for music in completely new ways. When I started listening to González’s music was when I dove into the visual arts. Whenever I would listen to his music, I would see a whole photographic series illustrating the story. And once this began, it never stopped. I can’t listen to music without envisioning entire artistic projects, and one day I'd love to create music as beautiful as José González’s that could be integrated into some of my artistic projects.  My artistic goals and aspirations are focused on the ways in which my art can revolutionize people and call others to action. I want my career to follow a path that is fundamentally rooted in humanitarian and environmental causes. I want my art projects to be a gateway for me to work with organizations that are focused on correcting injustices at every level. I want to work with local arts organizations and galleries as soon as possible to promote accessibility to art and provide safe spaces for communities to access a state of connection and contemplation. Eventually, I want to create solo shows and work with other artists to create group exhibitions, both traditional and experimental, that focus on cultivating creative and critical thinking through interesting concepts. Ultimately, I want to uproot structures of power in our society that keep people disconnected from each other and from living safe and deeply nourishing lives. Projects that I have already made, such as “Allegory,” are meant to incite a sense of unity in people through sparks of wonder and curiosity that form while thinking about something in a new way. I want my art to ignite a connection to both nature and humanity so profound it shatters individualistic perspectives that perpetuate separation and instead, create a harbor for community through a shared hope in our collective power to create change.

I keep a giant book with lists upon lists of things I would like to learn about, take part in, develop skills in, etc. The goal is to attain mastery within each area. It sounds pretty ambitious, but I am an extremely ambitious person. I love learning as much as I can about topics of interest. My current hobbies are reading, writing, photography, cooking, gardening, hiking, traveling, skating, surfing, and gaming. My most favorite thing to do is write poetry. I hope that my future career will allow me to spend a lot of time traveling and writing books. I am so inspired by humanity and take note of what I see each day to write about later. Since I can remember, I've been writing stories. But poetry became an essential part of my life around five years ago. It became my outlet for expression, as I am a very quiet person. I have dealt with so many emotions by writing poetry. I recently created an Instagram account to get my poetry out there. My goal is to have a poetry book published before my sophomore year of college. I have also gotten very into photography. Before a couple of years ago, I never thought about becoming a photographer. Now I am in love with the art form and take pictures on my camera daily. It's a very special medium to me. I want people to be inspired by what I create.