My art focuses on the South’s identity and the enigmatic people—myself included—who have built its culture. Many Southerners, taught to rest their laurels on the finer points of grace and class, fail to see these so-called virtues as vestiges of the region's Antebellum social order, but as an artist, I investigate these uncomfortable truths. Through the act of making, I contextualize questions of privilege, access, and nostalgia within the broader history of the South.
The tongue-in-cheek quality of my work, including their titles, becomes tragic through further investigation. This land—that of the red state paradox and the Confederate-flag-waving, self-proclaimed, quote-unquote, "American patriot"—is as incongruous as it is ironic. The people here are known to dazzle visitors with southern hospitality, but make yourself at home, and you’ll find out a truth: there is no southern archetype, no stereotype, nor is there a caricature that will suffice to sum us up.
Southernness doubles over when subject to introspection, becoming a mere caricature of its own societal fabric. Through my work, I ask viewers to embrace both the pain and the laughter of the Southern condition, holding in suspension all parts of the South’s identity complex.