The beauty of mortality is in the products of our existence: the things we build and the lasting impressions we leave on our environments and fellow organisms. History and folklore reveal our ability to influence the ideation and behaviors of others long after our physical presence has dissolved. In creating art, I construct visual representations of the persistence of existence. Skull imagery finds its way into much of my work as a record of my fascination with these relics of life and the notion of leaving a part of us behind. Our bones serve as a record of our physical selves, paralleling the purpose in art as an artifact of ideas or experience. I also have a propensity for creating portraits of pets, freezing moments of the joy they bring us onto paper and extending their existence beyond their final breaths. I create my artwork primarily in charcoal as it lends itself to strong contrast in a dramatic dance of light and dark, an aesthetic that reflects the tension between our imperative to survive and the inevitability of expiration.