Artist Statement
At the heart of my artistic practice is a deliberate and open collaboration with my materials. I make paintings on unprimed muslin and canvas primarily using dye and raw pigment with additional acrylic, gouache, colored pencil and water-soluble crayon. 30-90% of each piece is done before the painting is stretched so I can paint both sides of the fabric, allowing color to bleed through from one side to the other and for the fabric to soak up remnants of past paintings from the drop cloth. Though I am a figurative artist, rather than subject matter being my starting point, it is my materials and process that provide me with an entryway into my content. The materials themselves, coupled with my strange and often nontraditional ways of using them, create a push/pull between deliberate and unintentional movements.
The result of this process is a realm somewhere between the tangible, earthly world and the spiritual beyond. Evoking the feel of faded denim and hand-dyed garments, these are atmospheric images that explore our relationships with the cosmos and nature. Fire and water exist in harmony, playing the part of the great leveler but also providing a source for renewal and redemption. Many of my paintings also take on a more playful tone with the addition of hovering eyes that are reminiscent of spaceships, smiling faces on the edge of menace and larger than life, decidedly deity-like figures. In these ways, these paintings explore reverence, the striving we humans do for connection and the connection that is always there regardless of effort.
