ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My primary motivation in painting is to add something to the world that wasn't there before. Or maybe it was, but not in the neat little package called a work of art. I feel that the most powerful experiences I have had in my life are the same ones that do not lend themselves to easy description, especially through words. In my art I try to explain visually what I find stimulating at this level. I remember reading a quote years ago that has stuck with me and possibly become my primary justification for creating images:
"If I could tell the story in words, I would not have to lug around a camera.” - Lewis Hiene.
This idea resonates with my desire to make an image that defies explanation, or at the very least does not demand one. I like to talk about art and specific works, but what I like most is the open ended and endless discourse a single object can create. I don't believe this is a black and white world, and I would have to admit I really enjoy the ability to participate in that "grayness" through the use of color.
That said, my work has taken some very different and specific directions at various times, from purely non-representational paintings to fairly tight naturalistic work. The overarching commonality though is a concern with the aesthetic. I feel an image has to function first of all as good design in order to function as good art. I also am kind of fascinated by the tiny "moments" in a larger piece. It may be the unexpected way two colors run together or the way a line betrays the shape of the brush at the time it was painted. I try to be equally concerned with every inch of a painting as much as I am the painting as a whole.
I can't say for certain what direction my work will go next, but for me that is a large part of the attraction and the reason I paint.