Absence and loss, not presence, shapes my definition of beauty. It is this beauty that I express in my paintings. Within the landscape, houses become my subject matter, especially deteriorating buildings and trailers. I search for ways to describe the sense of nostalgia and regret that one might feel about a past home; to articulate changes of consciousness and the passage of time; to express the long memories tied to the land and sky that can surround a house.
Any expressive statement involves a negotiation between ones tool and one’s intentions. The artist tries to get the better of the former and to squeeze from them every iota of meaning. My work often involves the struggle to make my tools speak of the experience of a particular place. Areas of flat paint and areas of finely modeled detail combine to express what neither could achieve separately.
When I begin a piece, I use drawings and digital imaging software to create an image that can be applied serigraphically to my work surface. By intermingling this image with layers of oil and acrylic paint, I create a complex surface in which many elements move in and of each other. The resulting work presents a fragmented vision of place in which past recollection and present reality collide in unexpected ways. The beauty of such an image lies in the imperfect impression it gives of time and space. One finds the image, only to lose it.
|
