Date of Submission

Spring 2022

Academic Program

Studio Arts

Project Advisor 1

Lisa Sanditz

Abstract/Artist's Statement

I’m excited to extend an invitation to you to join me on a hunt for rabbits. I’ve only seen the rabbits that live in my parents’ backyard and I’ve never held a pet rabbit because I’m afraid of being bit. There’s a lot to learn from the distance between ourselves and the things that are right in front of us but blend into the background, things that are always running away, and things sitting in our lap that we’re too scared to hold. In Hunting Rabbits, the rabbit represents the parts of me that get away, and the paintings are an attempt to catch and come to terms with them. No rabbits are harmed but it wouldn't be a hunt without the implication of danger, and after all many of the things I’m looking for cause me pain, but there’s also tenderness and forgiveness because the rabbits are part of me.

My artwork always takes place in an imaginary fantasy world where I deposit the things I don't want to confront, free of consequences. I am interested in this form of escapism not only as it happens in my art practice but in my daily life. All my favorite kinds of escape leave a big mess, and some of this project devotes itself to cleaning up what I can't. Other parts of the project aren't worried about cleaning up after themselves and instead celebrate the evidence and junk the hunt leaves behind. I searched for rabbits in my old bedrooms, drawings, photographs, memories, trinkets and trash, following a trail of paw prints that helped articulate aspects of myself I couldn't access on my own. Individually the paintings are vignettes of how and where the hunt led me, both in their content and the emotions that drove them. Collectively the vignettes form a storybook narrative of the great frustration and pleasure I found in trying to catch the things that get away.

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