Artist Statement
Paintings are repositories of human intention that make permanent something that could be lost. My work is a combination of allegory and technical processes that work together to form a tableau that hint at artistic and historical references. These tableaus become an amalgamation of ideas, styles, representations and processes, with layers of disconnected symbols and objects. I forcibly connect themes and techniques with the intent to initiate a deeper exploration of the narratives that are sparked by viewing them.
Painting becomes a way to absolve my knowledge of art history and the plastic arts, challenging my preconceived notions on the formal rules established through educational discipline, highlighting my skepticism of the art world and postmodernism. In my work I incorporate a breadth of subject matter that can guide the choices I make through my processes and material handling; through deliberate employment of artistic variations, my process helps me expand the possibilities of the representation in my content. The painting itself becomes a conduit for creative thought.
It is my belief that the best paintings relate to each other throughout the span of history, and this dialogue is revealed through the way in which each piece was created in conjunction with its subject matter. Artifacts can be difficult to explicate from their context in history, evident in ancient cultures forgotten to history except for objects we discover after their time. Creating art that incorporates elements of these relics underlines their import in the context of art’s evolution over time, while creating a fresh dialogue for the artifacts within the framework of the art it influenced.
If image-making is a form of non-verbal dialogue that stretches from man’s early cave paintings to the modern museum installation, giving deeper insights into the interests and rites of man throughout history, then my image-making reveals a desire to be considered within this lineage of great art while at the same time aiding me in the pursuit of understanding my own complex needs and those of the society in which I live. Many of my tableaus can be considered a form of “set dressing,” with a stage and emphasis on space coordination, turned surreal by the juxtaposition of recognizable designs, and made further surreal by the malleability of paint’s nature, allowing for the reproduction of objects and non-objects alike in such a way as to create a seemingly very real physical presence between them.
Each application of paint is like building a compost pile: the material becomes the rich organic material to grow an image. The viewer investigates the symbolic gestures of the painting, from pigments to content, through suggestions or negations of space; allegory and material work together to maximize an experience. I work through my skepticism of political structures, the art world, and postmodernism, with intent to build an emotional climate for the viewer to enter; there is no overt narrative to attribute to the work. At the point it is observed, my artistic choices stack up and compound, inducing an exploration for clarity, with intention as a means of realization.