My work often blurs the line between figurative and abstract forms. While the subjects and backgrounds are familiar to our everyday, they are at times developed just to the point of being recognizable. My most recent works are abstract landscapes or environments for characters that have origins in previous works that I’ve done. These characters are primitive quirky beings who have found themselves in an unfamiliar place and are trying to figure out how to adapt to these new surroundings for survival. I imagine their new environment to be an earth-like planet that was nearly destroyed by its previous inhabitants. Although I may use intense colors and fun shapes, the dynamics between these characters’ and the situations they are in, tend to be more serious and dire.
Whether using oil, acrylic, oil pastel or charcoal each piece is started with little idea of what they’re going to be about. As I start to work I am focused solely on composition and how the colors, marks and shapes relate to each other. As I do this, different images emerge and start to take form as objects like a mountain, tree or “person”. Sometimes the forms that emerge do not work well together and I will then start the process over. I am waiting to be surprised and though I don’t always know exactly what I want, I know what I don’t want.
My work is about how we act and treat each other in public and in private and also with the subject’s relationship with its environment. I am always fascinated by art making in general and more specifically by creating a world where situations in the paintings reveal themselves to me. I want people who view my work to sense my excitement and that they may hopefully experience a bit of the same joy of discovery while viewing my work.