ARTIST STATEMENT
Awkward or elegant, contrived and authentic, real or imagined, deterministic and arbitrary, false or true events populate our world at the same time, and in the long term seem to have equal consequences as they form our life experience. Translating those ideas into the language and space of painting in a way that is palpable to the viewer is an ongoing journey in these works.
Departing from the strictly formal roots of abstract painting, I try to allow the possibility of a narrative, or an allusion to imagery to join in the process. So the experience is not entirely about painting itself, but rather, implies that disparate polarities continuously flow through us as people, as we struggle to translate and synthesize them into a worldview of time and space and life that makes sense. As in the world we experience, there are complex and inexplicable relationships in the work that are stated, but not entirely resolved, implying that one is on the tenuous edge of meaning but the code cannot quite be broken.
The history of art, particularly art since the turn of the twentieth century, plays an ever present role in influencing both the space and vocabulary in the work. While the possibility of image and narrative is present, and the vocabulary in the works is drawn from multiple sources in and outside of art, I believe the power of painting still lies in its ability to be absorbed as a singularly powerful and experiential moment rooted in sensuality, that provides a direct record of the uniquely human practice of invention.