Foreigner in a Foreign Land
2025. Acrylic on Canvas. 30” x 24”
In Foreigner in a Foreign Land, a European starling perches on a Tree of Heaven, contending with a hot pink wrought iron fence. The starling and the tree are two species that, like so many people, crossed oceans in search of survival, only to be deemed invasive. From this solitary bird’s call forms a murmuration of her flock, echoing the Judgement card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck. She, like the archangel Gabriel, trumpets the call for collective awakening.
The starling and the tree embody contradiction. Introduced by European settlers who longed for the familiar birds of Shakespeare’s England, it mirrors the story of colonization itself: both colonizer and colonized. It carries the vulnerability of migration and the arrogance of forgetting where one came from. Like the Tree of Heaven, it thrives in neglected spaces, creating beauty in what is overlooked.
Foreigner in a Foreign Land asks how a nation built by immigrants can so easily forget its origins and how those once considered “foreign” now turn that judgment outward. The wrought iron fence transforms a barrier into something strange and luminous; it’s inviting yet exclusionary. This painting is born out of a single question: can redemption occur if we cannot recognize ourselves?
The Dangers of the Fresh Air
2021. Acrylic on Wood Panel. 24” x 36”
Danger/Opportunity
2020. Acrylic and Collage on Wood Panel. 16” x 20”
Time and Tide Wait for No One
2020. Oil and Ratchet Straps on Canvas. 30” x 40”.
Struck Box
2020. Oil on Canvas. 40” x 60”
Source imagery from a dilapidated barn in Jamaica Plain, MA. This barn will be razed in the future and I would like to install this painting on the side of the barn before this happens.
See ya Later, Saturn Kid
2018. Acrylic on Wood Panel. 24”x’36”
10,000 Eyes
2016. Mix media on Rag paper. 18”x’24”
Time. Ghosts. Bye
2017. Oil on Canvas. 24”x’36”
Sold
Where Do We Go From Here?
2016. Mix Media on Paper. 24”x36”. Sold
Diminishing Returns
2016. Mix Media on Paper. 18”x’24”
Ghost Bike
2016. Acrylic on Wood Panel. 11”x14”
Chain Gang
2015. Mix Media on Wood. 22”x’36”.
