Artist Statement
In my work I find myself drawn to the subject of landscapes. A subject that points to the world around us, a world we inhabit that is wholly familiar to us yet vastly different from us; something we are constantly in dialogue with yet never speaks. Entering into this conversation, I begin by translating images of landscapes onto a canvas, working from observation, memory, and photographs, in order to explore this relationship. When I set out to paint a landscape, I am trying to derive the qualities of a specific landscape that are communicative. In particular, I am interested in how the elements of a landscape, when scaled down and placed onto a canvas, begin to find new meaning and form a visual language. Just as words can be arranged in a manner to form poetry, I am seeking to investigate how landscapes can be manipulated through the medium of paint to communicate ideas or emotions that cannot be seen or easily articulated. Working in tandem with the subject of landscapes is the act of painting itself. The different aspects of painting such as the marks, the brush strokes, the transparencies, and the drips, coalesce to become the lens through which the landscape can be seen. I primarily work with thin layers of acrylic paint as a means of complicating color and capturing light. While working, I allow the paint to drip and splatter onto the canvas to disrupt the image and leave evidence of the painting process. This transitory element allows the painting to leave the constraints of the literal behind and begin to construct a form of visual poetry.
Evidence of Things Not Seen
Sometime in Spring,
2020,
Acrylic on canvas,
60 in x 48 in
Orange Ave,
2020,
Acrylic on canvas,
60 in x 60 in
Yesterday,
2020,
Acrylic on canvas,
60 in x 48 in
All Afloat,
2020,
Acrylic on canvas,
60 in x 48 in
Between the Pines,
2020,
Acrylic on canvas,
60 in x 60 in