“Metro Ariston—" Calvin spoke softly. “Size. Where sizes don’t matter. But—to be as small as a galaxy is huge: can you make us that small?”
Blajeny smiled. "Size is really quite relative.”
—Madeleine L’Engle, A Wind in the Door
I studied painting at MassArt in the early 90’s, where I received my BFA. After finishing art school, I faced the question of how to live the life of a creative person while supporting myself reasonably. I wanted a somewhat balanced life so that I would know where my next meal was coming from, but what could one do with a degree in painting? As luck would have it, I entered the world of start-up tech companies as a project manager and graphics production artist, and eventually became an interaction designer working primarily on educational, web-based media. While my studio practice has always been a place where I am the primary stakeholder, I get a lot of satisfaction out of working collaboratively within a cross-functional team to solve problems and help make for better user experiences. Eventually I decided to go back to study painting again, however, because not only was the tech bubble about to burst, but I needed to learn how to dig deeper into my practice. I received my MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002.
The themes in my work center around scale and size, movement and stasis, and the merging of the internal and external physical worlds. Through the use of materials both sensuous and brittle, artificial and natural, I enjoy the play of juxtaposing unlikely companions in form and imagery in order to draw in the viewer. Things are not always what they seem, but we only ever know what we’re missing if we slow down long enough to take a second look.