oil painting on canvas, mixed-media collage, gold leaf
46″ x 46″
The VMI Internazionale series transforms pages from the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration into playful, imagined environments. Originally designed to assess children’s visual and motor development, the diagrams become the foundation for paintings that challenge the assumptions embedded within standardized measures of ability. Created after reflecting on the ways childhood assessments can shape a person’s understanding of themselves, the work questions the authority of systems that attempt to define intelligence through narrow forms of evaluation. Growing up, I often believed these measures reflected my own limitations. Over time, I came to understand that creativity, curiosity, and different ways of learning cannot be fully captured by standardized tests.
