These paintings explore the line between empathy and repulsion in the world of the abject; they investigate the push and pull of contradictory beliefs, cognitive dissonance, and the presence of guilt as an accessory to free will. Using abjection as a means to solicit empathy allows for a dichotomy between what is supposed to be unseen, such as nakedness and biological bodily function, versus what cannot be seen, such as the exploration of abstract ideas, thoughts, and emotions. The traditional process of oil painting through underpaintings and glazing recalls the Northern Renaissance, a time when oil paintings were seen as windows into an ideal world, with symbolism that reiterates the idea that what is holy is around us in our everyday. These pieces, contemporarily, are windows into an imagined interior space where the figures represent the thoughts and emotional experiences of each individual viewer, while the everyday objects are meant to stand in for abstract thoughts such as temptation, knowledge, and self-awareness. Through the representation of intimate body parts, such as elongated breasts and genitalia, along with the use of man-made objects like bottles and books, the viewer is able to empathize with these beings as not only living beings, but beings which are more human than animal in nature, capable of complex emotion and emotional intelligence. The representation of mental anguish comes from the lack of agency the creatures have in interacting with their environments: without hands, they are unable to manipulate the world around them, and without pupils they are unable to gaze anywhere other than inward toward their own psychologies. They are given no choice, and without choice, there is no right or wrong, no saved or damned. Trapped within their own worlds, they are left to contemplate the meaning of their own existence.