"Time after time, I keep learning that optimism is the right response to the human condition. I have to keep learning this again and again because despair is an incredibly powerful force in our lives as women. It's like a never-ending joker card dealt to us, where our physical bodies often determine our experience. It’s every gas stop when I roll up on my motorcycle and am asked how it’s possible I have the strength to hold it up. It’s the exclusion I feel when I’m childless in a group of mothers. It’s the desperation when trying to convince my male doctor to “Please believe me.” They are both motivation to move forward and death by a thousand cuts…

 

We live in a paradox of being joyful while also deeply sad—optimism and despair exist simultaneously, like salt and pepper—both options always on the table, each of us with a choice. Most times, they go together, and beauty can stem from tragedy. Having raw emotions forces us to gain new perspectives. The beauty that is left are these lessons. 

 

This work examines what happens when we acknowledge both the weight of despair and the possibility of joy. Through the use of the female form and floral imagery, I’m exploring how women in particular must navigate a cultural landscape that simultaneously celebrates and dismisses our emotional experiences. Any woman can look at this work and undoubtedly think "That could be me" because we have all wanted to hide from our reality. We have all felt compelled to pretend everything is fine when it is not. By omitting the facial expressions, the viewer is instead pressed to examine the body language, asking themselves what story do her gestures suggest? Immortalized in glowing hues, I chose to paint my close friends and family for most of the portraits. These are the women who radiate support for so many of my life decisions, even when they might not have the bandwidth to address their own. We often find ourselves saying “I love women!” after hanging out because of how luminous we feel.

 

Flowers, traditionally associated with beauty, delicacy, and impermanence, function as both celebration and concealment in this work. They are simultaneously a distraction and a veil to mask our true feelings. Rene Magritte said, “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and what we can see, which can take on an intense feeling, a conflict.” The beauty that is left is the knowing that simply being a woman is a conflict.

 

This exhibition continues my commitment to amplifying women's experiences and creating spaces where female perspectives are centered rather than marginalized. Through a post-optimism aesthetic, I’m suggesting that acknowledging the full spectrum of our emotional responses—from grief to hope—might be our most honest path forward. The beauty that is left is the hope in candid moments. It is our female friendships. The beauty that is left are the women themselves."