Angel in the Doorway is a series of acrylic paintings on unprimed canvases and salvaged wooden offcuts. The collection probes the unease and apprehension involved in grief. The paintings on canvas craft an intimate and cinematic narrative that unfolds through quiet and contemplative looking. The pieces on scrap wood provide a meta-narrative about the passage of time. Angel in the Doorway is accompanied by a poem of the same title, which serves as a more personal examination into grief.

I made this body of work because grief is overwhelming and isolating. We all carry stories that feel unspeakable. We hold our grief close to our chests. This body of work is an acknowledgment that though the specifics of our circumstances can remain opaque, we can still be united in the universal feelings provoked by our suffering.

Many of the images in this series are taken from strangers' family photographs. The images focus on fleeting moments - brief flashes of time, both literally and figuratively. Our personal histories are often mediated through a photographic record, which becomes a stand-in for our memories and experiences. There are many tensions present in this mediated history (between memory and photograph, between photograph and painting, between strangers’ experiences and my experiences) that I explore in this body of work. Although these are not my photos and do not depict my life, it’s through reinterpreting these real-life bittersweet images that I’m able to delve into feelings that are big, universal, and at times scary.