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​​I make art about the intertwined histories of pharmaceuticals and color. My pointillist, color-saturated paintings, infused with actual pharmaceuticals, utilize imagery from art history and advertising to explore the ecstasy and toxicity of our present moment. The “pharmakon,” a Greek term that simultaneously means cure, poison, and paint and is the origin of the English words pharmaceutical and toxic, is a concept that centers the work.

I work from images taken from pharmaceutical advertising that bear an uncanny reference to art historical works, particularly from the Impressionist period, which was contemporaneous with the invention of synthetic pigment and drugs. These images of idealized leisure form potent means of understanding representations of race, gender, sexuality, and disability.

I transform these advertisements into vibrant paintings of figures in landscapes and blasts of abstract patterns. Working on synthetic substrates such as Kevlar ballistic fabric and polyester canvas, each dot, made with custom tools, is a particular pill's exact size and shape. Each oval is the color that corresponds to the branding of that pharmaceutical, an actual sample of which is mixed into the paint. Different combinations of color and drugs create vibrant contrasts optically and conceptually, such as juxtaposing painkillers with opioid blockers.