Aqua vitae
A love of nature and all things natural has crept slowly into my newest work. The recent paintings use color, line and space to refer to landscapes, vistas and horizons. The color palettes and placement refer to geographical formations and bodies of water and natural elements. Water and sand, earth, and grass are referenced. I’m interested in interspersing representational and abstract elements in a way that depicts a world that is familiar but illusory. The pictures are ultimately metaphysical but refer to the earth’s topography while incorporating references to architecture and constructed spaces. My deep-rooted interest in order and regularity drives the construction of these paintings, which are windows into more complex worlds, integrating infinite ambiguous and realistic spaces.
Afterimage
The works in Afterimage distill a basic accessible form of abstraction to its essence. The colors that appear in the paintings, the result of a variety of experiences that occur in a particular time, place or location, symbolize the idea of a moment in time as an experience to be captured and recorded. Not wholly symbolic, the color systems are meaningful for their connotations. The hues interact, vibrating and creating a distinct “optical” result.
The works contain a familiarity in composition, referring to fabric and surface design in mass produced, readily available pop culture goods. Color systems are drawn from sources as varied as natural settings, preset palettes, observation, color forecasting and predictions, events, and momentary experiences. These experiences can be banal and ordinary, exciting and stimulating, but the interaction of the colors allow for the possibilities of anxiety, happiness, calm, stress and foreboding.
The formal process utilized in making this work speaks to the give and take necessary in maintaining and relinquishing control in day-to day living. Process and experimentation determines the role that the color systems play in the work. The works are physical to make, requiring repetitive interaction with the picture and culminating in painting actions that negotiate the natural and cultural worlds. Both planning and intuition have an important role in the final outcome, creating an interactivity of the intellect and the gut. Beyond the use of graphic systems and drawing, the symbology of the work reduces it to the essence of meaning.
Mapping
In my recent work I have created paintings that contain representational and abstract elements, depicting a world that is familiar but illusory. The pictures are ultimately metaphysical but refer to the earth’s topography while incorporating references to architecture and constructed spaces. These aerial landscapes have windows into more complex worlds, integrating infinite space and floating and moving elements. Containing both ambiguous and realistic spaces, the works suggest maps and charts while alluding to vaporous atmospheres and gravitational pull.
The physical act of pouring paint allows me to create a primordial ground upon which I build. I use a variety of techniques and approaches, juxtaposing formal painting with intuitive mark making. The process allows for both the careful and seemingly messy application of paint, in which intentional brush strokes and chance dripping and blobs of color occupy space. Surface materiality, painterly intent and construction techniques suggest that the painting be considered an object rather than image. The hard and shiny surfaces provide a reflective ground on which a variety of natural elements exist, creating a delicate, ethereal atmosphere.
Floating images and objects seem to continue beyond the edges of the panels, surpassing the bound picture plane. Crystalline networks mesh and define the space, and anthropomorphic shapes and cloudlike forms refer to the natural world: cell division, bodies, water droplets, lunar landscapes. The layers of images and elements intimate both micro and macro views of natural worlds that are as much imaginary as substantive.