This series captures encounters on the edges of perception. Sunlight flares, coupled with mirror reflections seen through varied apertures, upend everyday materials to dizzying effect. “Limit experiences,” described in Anaesthetics of Existence, by Cressida Heyes, explores moments where a subject runs up against the limits of its own possibility, which in turn generates novel self-understanding.

My daily swims off the La Jolla Shores Beach—over the depths of the Pacific ocean from March through September 2020—were my “limit experience.” I was unhinged by the seemingly bottomless ocean and the spontaneous sightings of unnameable forms. The results were a daily reckoning with discomforting fears, precariousness, losing sight of one’s contour, and the ultimate fear of disappearing. I learned to control what I could (my pace and breath) and to expect that rush of adrenaline, use it as a heightened tool for observing color. My images embrace these observations in order to probe states of expansion and containment: the refraction of light passing through the water, the glare of the sun, and the movement of my body.
In Free Fall; ice, 2023. Acrylic paint on canvas; 22 × 32 inches.
In Free Fall; Wave Motion, 2023. Acrylic paint on canvas; 32 × 22 inches.
In Free Fall; Gold, 2023. Acrylic paint on canvas; 22 × 32 inches.
In Free Fall (diamond), 2022. Silkscreen on canvas; 53 × 63 inches.
In Free Fall; Empathic Psychosis, 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on canvas; 23.5 × 29.5 inches.
In Free Fall (grey eye), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on muslin paper; 53 × 63 inches.
In Free Fall (grey, red, and yellow), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on muslin paper; 53 × 63 inches.
In Free Fall (dark screens), 2021. Silkscreen on canvas; 28 × 38 inches.
In Free Fall (white hole), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on canvas; 24 × 34 inches.
In Free Fall (blue and silver), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on canvas; 31 × 19 inches.
In Free Fall (white blast), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on canvas; 20 × 30 inches.
In Free Fall (yellow reflection), 2021. Silkscreen and acrylic paint on canvas; 30 × 20 inches.
In Free Fall; Twin Mechanisms of Confinement and Exposure, 2019. Silkscreen on muslin paper; 63 × 53 inches.
In Free Fall (interlocking lens), 2019. Silkscreen on muslin paper; 63 × 53 inches.
In Free Fall (aperture), 2019. Silkscreen on canvas; 13 × 14 inches.