Artist Statement
My current body of work uses abstraction to examine the lines between art historical reference and this lived history in an attempt to name and give voice to this conflicted space. References to the environment, art and human history all take center stage in these large, vibrant paintings.
Systematic mark making and spontaneity find equal footing, references are not secret but the condition of the work. Irreverence and crushing absurdity battle amid parables of human and natural history. Crisis of our own making – cultural, political and environmental – face off in this current body of work.
Much like societal systems of invention and destruction, each painting is built up through additive mark making and reductive methods like scraping, drawing or the application of solvents. I embrace spontaneity and uses the physical process to reflect on the nature of the paint. This physicality breathes life into the pictorial space and helps the viewer connect to subjects of culture, our relationship with the natural environment and our preoccupation with idealized visions of a natural world.
