vegging out

July 16 — August 9, 2026

The Pop-Hop, Highland Park, Los Angeles

I paint the magical feeling I get from plants and places that I see on my neighborhood walks. They seem to reveal glimmers of a parallel universe full of infinite possibility. Painting them is like stepping into a secret garden where I can ruminate, daydream, and find answers at my own pace. I try to spend as much time there as I can.

In other words, I paint to veg out: not in the sense of doing nothing, but like a plant in its vegetative growth phase. In the vegetative phase, plants focus on making new leaves and branching in new directions. They don’t produce flowers or fruit, but their growth is dramatic, lush, and beautiful in its own way, with branches stretching out at awkward angles and tender new leaves that are a lighter shade of green than the rest of them. Peering through their leaves, I find freedom from the everyday pressure to stay on track, be productive, and fit myself into a neat and convenient shape. All I have to do is let nature take its course. Sharing these paintings together is my way of bringing this feeling out from the shadows of the leaves and into the light of regular life.