I've been working as an artist across mediums for a bit over 10 years now. Despite changes in medium, subject, and series, my artistic vision has remained the same. I'm fascinated with dreams, and my favorite thing about dreams is that they're believable. When you're having one, you don't really question it. You accept it as reality.

As an artist, I try to create something similar: something surreal and weird but also believable, if just for a minute. I think fiction is at its most interesting when it's based in reality, so that's how I approach surrealism as well. Suburban life is perfect for this, as most people are familiar with and have memories associated with it. It's sort of this raw emotional building block that I can alter and build into fascinating visual stories. I feel like people agree that the suburbs are pretty strange, so they're already halfway ready to accept my surreal twists on it

After living in the suburbs for most of my life, I moved to New York City. This unlocked many perspective shifts for me. Firstly, it gave me an immense appreciation for grass, which is very noticeable in my work. I visited my parents after a few years away and nearly melted at the smell of fresh cut grass. Secondly, this distance recontextualized suburban life. The way neighbors interact, the lawns they protect, the boundaries they put up. To an alien, suburban humans must look like a completely different species than city humans. As the city became more and more familiar to me, these differences became more interesting. So in the Spring of 2023, I decided to explore them.

The spectrum of narrative clarity goes from abstract nonsense to being hit over the head with a brick. A good artwork goes somewhere in the middle. It's a balancing act, because you want something that the viewer can relate to, but also something open-ended. If everyone gets a different message from my artwork, I think that's wonderful. Too much clarity, or too cliche of a message, can definitely degrade an artwork

The Suburbs are strangely perfect. Nature is only allowed to exist under strict, organized parameters. Nothing is overgrown. There is a beauty to this, but there is also a sterility. There is peace, but also uncomfortable silence.

The Seoul exhibition was a fantastic experience. My work was displayed in a variety of formats, from backlit canvases to framed prints and digital screens. Many artworks were massive, printed around 8ft tall. The artworks were also displayed in bespoke rooms that were made to complement the artworks. The Suburbs sat in a soft, gentle room with lush pink carpet, complementing the pastel colors of the houses. World Underwater artworks were displayed backlit in a dim room, where rippling light patterns were projected on the floor to emulate water.

This experience made me very excited for the future of displaying my art. I think we should do more shows that design the space around the artworks. I would love to do a Suburbs exhibit in a gallery space with fresh sod replacing the floor.

I think so. From Americans, I get more personal comments about how artworks remind them of very specific memories. I'm often told that my artworks look exactly like a dream someone had. I love these comments.

It's very autobiographical. Many artworks draw directly on my own personal experiences. 'Best Friends' was inspired by my own best friend, as his house was directly in front of mine. However, many artworks have nothing to do with me. Some artworks are absurd; some are purely comical. Many artworks are about universal feelings and experiences, like childhood nostalgia.

Both, but I see myself as more of a world-builder. I often feel like a film director, where I'm creating different scenes within the same cinematic universe. Different series exist in different worlds with different rules.

I like to imagine I exist in this strange world with a camera, and I'm walking around taking pictures of it. When I'm out walking, I imagine what I wish I could see and photograph with this mental camera.

I actually think all these series are grounded in everyday life. World Underwater, for example, portrayed common locations with floods. It was meant to be relatable and familiar to the viewer. I agree that The Suburbs is more grounded, but it's also exploring a new direction. I wanted to create a larger series with a more flushed out world. Swimwear only consists of seven artworks. The Suburbs is already at twenty-six artworks and growing.

I desire larger, narrative worlds. I feel like I'm being drawn to making video games and movies to explore even larger worlds.

The very first image in the series, 'Memory Lane', captures the series very well. It's pleasant and perfect, but also ominous. It's nostalgic, but disconcerting. It's infinite, as the suburbs go on forever and ever. To a viewer of this world, I simply hope they feel something powerful: be it a childhood memory, a wave of nostalgia, or maybe even something primal.