| Artist Statement |
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I want to tell you a story.
Painting is something I must do. Putting paint onto a canvas, slowly, methodically, purposefully, this is my way of making sense of the world. This is how I document. Everything I see, everything I feel, everything I think, all of it affects how I choose to make these pictures, these paintings. My work is a reflection of our time, with me as a filter. Each brush stroke is a word, each painting a paragraph or passage. With luck someday the body of work I will have produced with tell the tale of a life. My most recent work is based mostly upon still life and portraits, but pushing both toward abstraction to varying degrees. I'm fascinated by the illusion of visual art. How much do I need to put on the canvas to reveal my intent or to describe an object or person? How much can I take away? Where is the line that marks the bare minimum for each piece? What do I need to include to tell the story? Is it about color? Shapes? The relationship between colors and shapes? I put it on the canvas and then take it away, and then add some more, and then subtract again. It's a constant tugging back and forth, a struggle to find balance. At the end of the day I want to tell a story, but each day it seems there is a new story to tell. I take keen interest in the spontaneity of simple, found objects, things normally overlooked or not noticed at all. I argue that under-observed or discarded things, the small and the nondescript, deserve to be studied, noted and celebrated. Through exploration, I invariably find that even these things are intricate and rich. My painting is about finding beauty in odd places. I believe imperfections are what define a thing’s or even a person’s beauty. True beauty and interest lie in a thing or person’s unique qualities. This is a central idea that I desire to document through painting, specific to our present culture, time and place. Some of my past work has centered on issues that I feel demand our attention and must be addressed and documented in art. By painting works encompassing these ideas, I wish to engage the viewer, provoke thought and encourage dialogue and debate. Simultaneously, I temper these ideas and thoughts by looking inward to investigate my own personal philosophies and spirituality, while also studying similar ideas of those who have come before me. The art that comes from this line of thought then can be said to be complementary to the art that documents the social issues of our times; one is influenced by that which lies within me, the other by that which lies without. This is the struggle then, to find a balance between these two worlds. |