Artist Statement
My paintings are an attempt to model an equivocal relationship between abstract forms and sensations of looking. In the northeastern North American landscape there are leaves and air and sky and sun, all of which is condensed into the mind. Taken in, these ideas are then reproduced in two-dimensional visual form. The use of elemental forms promotes connection with larger frames of interpretation, and allows for the language of the natural world to intensify and resonate on a human scale.
My research interests such as urban debris, folk art, historic expressionism, and landscape photography, all leave their traces in the final work. These lines of inquiry are blended through a process which relies on and openly celebrates the incidental as a compositional tool. With this approach I can capture moments of occult balance, in which two elements that are unlike each other, are found to feel harmoniously balanced. Over time, I have found that the most interesting images evoke a quizzical mood. They ask for a type of interpretation in which a viewer can exercise close looking and experience subtle optical surprise.
The types of abstraction invented in the modern era stem from a rejection of a prescribed naturalistic painting and instead focused on the material properties of paint and its potential to express ideas using formal elements. This position is my starting point as well, but with the idea that abstract forms can potentially deepen our connection to the natural world.