Centering on abstract themes of transformative experiences, non-human intelligences, and environmentalism, abstraction and representation compete for dominance in my work. The exploration of the construction and deconstruction, the back and forth process and interrelationships between tensions, experiences, landscapes, nature, the Anthropocene reveals the issue of relenting and regaining control—in art making, in society, in life.
In my work the pictorial subject and surface of the painting become energized realms for negotiation, composition, and harmony, where tension and impression of the image is essentially the piece. Interwoven abstraction and representation, depth and surface, micro and macro, mark making and rendered objects, the works manifest my interest in the process of painting to createa hybrid state of tension, capturing an essence of time, through initiation and destruction, just as in the Anthropocene.
Pushing the boundaries of painting by using, sometimes, unconventional materials and working the representation/abstraction through multiple phases of creation and destruction, (sometimes, close to obliteration), creates a tension. Into this I enter notions about dichotomies (thus, tensions) between the physical world and the transcendent realm: materialism versus non-material; representation versus abstraction; humor versus solemnity.
Picasso said that no art is truly abstract because the artist always starts from something. The generation of imagery is added to, subtracted, and/or eradicated in a painterly language, both with a conscious and intuitive flow of materials and via a conscious level of semiotics. Some of the altered relationships are formalist structures. The formal elements are those, when transformed, evolve as signifiers in my work.The application, variety, and reworking of materials is crucial. It is multifarious, leading to visible transparency and multiple layers. Layers of depth to impasto to specified detailed surface.
My current work is not based on a single motif but on a variety of contemporary issues. Process, action, and associative reference where experiences, intellect, intuition, and perception negotiate, compose, and harmonize is central to the work. Our actions influence our surroundings.The goal of this work is to continue a conversation about living along side that which is different to find a just and equitable way to exist on the planet