I was born in the Transylvanian town of Cluj, Romania. My family moved around frequently when I was very young. There was Budapest, Hungary and I attended a British preschool before moving to and ultimately being raised in Los Angeles. My early life was defined by shifting cultural landscapes and languages. Navigating diverse environments cultivated an enduring curiosity for people, history, and the shared human experience. After pursuing a BFA in Professional Acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), my creative path shifted toward the visual arts following a visceral encounter with many great artworks, chief among them, Julian Schnabel’s plate paintings at The Broad. The sensory, textured allure of those works served as a catalyst, bridging my background in performing arts with a new medium and ultimately launching my journey as a painter. At first, it was pure ego and fun, but slowly it became an ever-consuming and planned-out, sober affair. I devoted myself to the art almost compulsively.

I’m often asked about my influences, and while the question seems complex to me, the answer is simple: if you're open, anything can spark an idea. Lately, my work is driven by the desert, ancient myths, and hermeticism. I tend to gravitate towards working with rough and purposefully uneven textures. To me, it adds a physical resistance and hurdle that forces you to adapt to whatever is in front of you. That conflict almost gives another dimension and life to the painting. In the past, I experimented with sand, soil and fabric, but recently have gravitated to developing a formula consisting of molding paste or, more often than not, spackling mixed with other gels and pastes. When an idea hits, it arrives all at once and fully formed. Akin to a challenge. The work lies in navigating the tension between that initial vision and where the painting demands to go. More often than not, the pieces I have to fight for and struggle with end up being my truest paintings.

Over the past decade, my practice has shifted naturally toward a lot more figurative work and portraiture, anchored by underlying touches of abstraction. This evolution is driven by a desire to interrogate the physical form with ethereal expression. I steer away from the casual poses of most modern figurative works. I look to create a heightened, dreamlike, sculptural reality. Much like dancers frozen in motion, my paintings examine how posture can shape our psychology. This is a direct influence from my time in London, particularly my studies involving masks as well as the writings of the great director Michael Chekhov and what he deemed the Psychological Gesture.