In late 2016, when the shock of the election was still fresh, I tried to start drafting a blog post entitled "Art and All of This”. I thought a lot about what I would want to say, to unpack the relationship between my life and my art, and how I couldn’t avoid the ways the goings-on of the world were going to affect my artwork. There’s an oft-expressed idea that art and entertainment shouldn’t get political. That it exists to entertain and provide a positive escape.

I assume this comes from people who have a choice as to whether they are affected by politics or not— many people do not get that choice.

I do not get that choice.

The people my paintings are primarily about do not get that choice.