In my collage portraiture, I paint over photocopies of relatives and copyright-free vintage images, then layer elements to tell the stories I imagine for each subject. My materials include acrylics, fine art papers and ephemera, each element selected to advance the narrative.

In my assemblage work, I use repurposed cigar boxes as my substrates because I am fascinated by their history of being used to hold personal treasures and secrets. They are like small caves: sheltering, intimate, yet potentially claustrophobic without a source of light. I house the stories I tell within my caves with layers of textured paper, color and vintage imagery.

I see layers of memory and emotion within people like layers of an archaeological dig: compacted below the faces we know, supported and shaped by the strata of ancestors and experiences only half-remembered. But like ancient cities which survive into the modern era, fragments of these subsumed layers may still surface in daily life at unexpected moments.