As a father, educator, and artist, I am constantly engaged with young people and thinking about how we can engender useful ideas and concepts within their generation—ideas that might support and guide them as they move through life.

At the same time, I have always been deeply interested in the thoughts, ideas, and opinions young people have about the world around them. This work emerges from that curiosity. I imagine these child figures as being in charge of their own destinies, revealing and exploring aspects of their thinking, imagination, and agency.

The work also feels like an extension of my own childhood self. It brings together my memories and experiences of being a child with my experiences of being a father today, and the questions that come with that role: How much agency do we give young people? What do we learn from listening to them? And what might the world look like if we allowed their perspectives to have greater influence?

Through these figures, I am interested in creating a space where children are not simply represented as recipients of knowledge or subjects to be guided, but as thinkers, decision-makers, and active participants in shaping their own futures.