My paintings deal with questions of identity, gender, memory and coming of age.

In an overarching sense, they investigate the role of contemporary masculinity. The paintings present some of the complicated modes of masculine construction and performance, such as violence, embarrassment, and a masking of affect, as well as the inability to manage these emotions and behaviours.

My work often acts as a peering-in to my own identity and memory, as well as a response to the actions and behaviours I saw in men and boys growing up in the working-class neighbourhoods of Hamilton, Ontario in the late 1990’s and 2000’s. Historically, a city driven by its steel industry but now displaced, the rigid working-class ethos remains in the shadows of the factories. Many of my paintings are attempts at reconstructing scenes from memory.

Drawing inspiration from a Barbara Kruger piece, where the text reads, “You construct intricate rituals to touch the skin of other men,” my works reveal the ways in which young men engage in touch, but also how the act of male touch is often mediated by ritualized behaviour. These works expand beyond Kruger’s piece, not strictly limited to mere touch, but also consider how ritual is employed to mediate or facilitate male intimacy and relationships at large.

Mosh pits, drunken half-hugs, the short leash of a cell phone charger, the promise of getting high; these are but some of the ways young men can validate platonic intimacy that is otherwise often taboo. The paintings underscore tension and discomfort, delicately intermingling violence and affection, fragility and indifference, while revealing those rare, tender moments shared by young men who are often otherwise guarded. The mismatching of subjective tone demonstrates the contentious position of contemporary masculinity, torn between progressive politics of change and inherited hegemonic norms.