Monachopsis
/moʊnʌkɒpsɪ́s/
noun
1. the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

Over the course of my life, I have felt slightly miscast. Never really sure where I stand. In between, and yet off to the side. With these very internal feelings, I aimed to convey them externally – expanding the definition of monachopsis to apply to events and locales as well as these personal, insular feelings. Situations and locations can feel off and out of place. I think the feeling that ‘something isn’t quite right’ can work both existentially and phsyically. These works all explored that in some way. A big part of monachopsis for me was taking the mundane, and twisting it in a way – making it something darker, more cynical. At least, that was my intent.

To be forthright, these works were made possible by an Emerging Artists grant I received from the Ontario Arts Council in 2018. I never had the chance to display these anywhere, nor create as many pieces as I would have liked, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns.

Over time, the locus of my work changed. And I felt that I improved as an artist. Being even more forthright, I look at this series, and I am underwhelmed. I feel like I didn’t do the concept justice with the scant amount of work I did. Now that things have opened up, I would like to revisit these works and attempt to do them justice, both in quantity and quality. But for posterity, here they are for you all to see.