Artist Statement
Specificity is crucial when making abstract work. In trying to find a different way
to paint shapes, I decided to arrive at them from the inside out, without any
drawing or outline. They came to be indirect extractions of landscapes or objects:
It's not like looking at a hillside and then cutting a chunk out of the earth, but
rather looking at a picture of a landscape and cutting a slice that includes the sky,
part of the hill and a shadow. I want my subjects to be ambiguous enough so that
the references to items and landscape are not illustrations, but proxies that can
move in and out of contexts.
I often walk around taking snapshots looking for moments when colors and materials clash, and result in perceptual shifts. I want to hold onto the moment when my senses somehow deceive me. When I paint, I create systems detached from my normal experience in order to reference these moments. I begin a painting knowing the scale of the shapes I want to include, and the color for the under-painting that I have mixed in preparation. Once I've applied the under- painting, I begin mixing new colors. I will begin to create shapes with the first or second color I mix. When a shape emerges from this color, I blend more colors and resolve the remaining negative space. I look for colors that vibrate, obscure and diffuse my creation of an illusion of space. Ultimately, I may end up scraping away the first color that I put down. I do not let the shapes extend much beyond the edges of the panel, and there is always a foreground and background. None of the illusionistic elements are drawn ahead of time—everything emerges by the action of my hand, which works within a certain range of motion.
Abstract painting is highly conceptual—serving as a translation into a physical, perceptual, and imagined language. Working within a set of parameters provides a specificity that allows me to be intuitive within this language.
Photographs