About Me.
With many years of looking carefully at medieval art, my ink and charcoal drawings are yet another form of exploring the decisions, forms and marks created by medieval artists. By doing so, my small and simple drawings recapture portraits of medieval artists and their sitters otherwise stuck in centuries gone by. ​
My aesthetics are based on my art-degree training in print and engraving. As a young student, I felt that print making would always be beyond my financial means, so I developed a drawing style that had the marks and character of print. I primarily combine dip pen with charcoal and draw intuitively, relying on years of life-model drawing. Through these techniques, I feel more capable of recording and investigating the works of artists from the past. I also enjoy watercolour and pastel
but I fear a colour palette.
I grew up in Europe, Asia and South America before living in New York City for ten years while I completed my BA at New York University (Art History and Fine Arts majors) and an MA at Hunter College, CUNY. During my MA, I also began a four-year career at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. During these degrees, I held a curatorial internship at the Guggenheim Museum and was a docent at the Hispanic Society of Americas.
In 2018, I completed my PhD at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where I wrote a thesis on medieval altar furnishings and liturgical objects from the Iberian kingdom of Castile. My position was that the objects in this space --- whose functions are often seen as obscure and dictated by dogmatic theologians --- were in fact designed and amassed there through the will and interests of lay people. While not often allowed to access the altar in person, the objects of the altar functioned as proxies for the community at large. During the thesis, I consulted with the Brothers Quay on the functioning of an articulated sculpture of the Virgin whose movement I likened to stop-motion animation ('Resurrecting the Medieval Altar', 2019).
Following a successful defence of my PhD, I curated an exhibition on the role of artists in the development of Marian theology at the Getty Museum. Then, returning to England, I have worked for five years as a researcher of art history on an AHRC-funded grant, lectured at the Courtauld and at various continuing education institutions and have recently been the recipient of an AAH Art History residency. A co-authored monograph on the roles of arts in the creation of a saint in medieval Spain is upcoming and a book based on my lectures to practicing artists is also in the works.
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Medieval art was not formed by dogmatic, superstitious and corrupt elites. Medieval art was formed by artists dedicated to their crafts who met the parameters of their assignments and then went far beyond, representing the whole world and all of time in each artwork through collapsed compositions and wit. Understanding medieval art in this way --- through research or practice --- is my passion.
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I am currently seeking opportunities to lecture to artists and to share my training in art history with practicing artists. I can offer further information and statements of recommendation from such artists upon request.