Artist Statement
My latest series of oil paintings on canvas depicts a search for understanding place and documenting perceptions of self. As individuals and as a society we are constantly assessing where we belong and where we stand at any given moment. In order to make sense of experience, we reflect on, order, and categorize our experiences. I often perceive the passing of time as a cinematic display of sights, sounds, and abstract symbols in constant motion. My paintings aim to capture the essence of this perception while pressing pause on the formative stages of comprehension.
The work stems from my own efforts to establish a strong sense of self in a problematic society. This includes a stifling helplessness in light of world events, an embodiment of the mundane, and a limited but necessary ability to transcend circumstance. Since the memory of reality is ever-changing in relation to new experiences, my painting process combines remembered events or places with direct visual representation to create a fusion of past and present. I work from the understanding that the misguided or false nature of memory that stems from dreams and unconscious imagination is a real part of self reflection and an essential component of reality.
The paintings display a psychological landscape that depicts how we linger on the pure artifice of the surface while comprehending the murky depths below. The past is used to comprehend the present just as hopes or fears color our interpretations of people and things. I seek a more lucid articulation of the many dualities that personify the mask of human experience by combining the serious with the sensual; the frenetic with the solitary; the real and the imagined. Through this approach, the work attempts to look inward at the self and outward at the world at the same time. My paintings exist in a world that falls apart and comes together through a kind of visual turbulence in a structure of overall harmony.