Painting is a language that develops slowly, partially because much of the work
takes place in isolation. However one then uses that language to find and to portray universal truths. Symbols, that can be understood
intellectually, somatically, emotionally help to make this language comprehensible. In the most abstract, a symbol can be a brush stroke
that evokes a gesture which epitomizes an emotion, at its most concrete it can be a flower a figure or fog. My paintings tend to
contain images that have been with me since I was a child doodling in my schoolbooks, but they have their roots in symbols that are a part
of all of us. The repetitive marks that I have always made represent many aspects of our universe, ranging from cells to eggs to pods,
from organs to flora and fauna, from grids and spirals to rocks and shells.
Some search for answers by exploring the world outside of themselves, others go in. As a member of the latter group, part of the language I use
relies on the visual clues inherent in some of the most basic building blocks of life: cell-like form, eggs dividing and multiplying, entities traveling
through passages. Other images are more structural but equally as universal and can be seen as walls with windows or doors, whether looking in or looking out?
These symbols manifest from my passions, my fears, my hopes. As with all truths, as with all experiences, I hope my paintings can be read on many levels and
that the structure of using recognizable forms helps in these readings.
I paint because I have to.
I paint because I want to
I paint to make sense of the world.
I paint to get from one day to the next.
I paint to grow.
I paint to ask the questions.
I paint to find the answers.
I love color, color often tells me what to paint, color is play.
I love the surface and its textures.
I love materials; the smell of the paint, of the beeswax, of the mediums.
I love the texture of the mediums too: some thick and syrupy, others like bodily fluids.
I hope I paint recognizable truths (think Winesburg, Ohio).
I hope the paintings act like Rorschachs and create inroads to what's hidden.
I hope the intensity (as opposed to the content) of the emotion that went into the work, resonates from it.
I believe in daily practice; in painting everyday.
I believe in synchronicity as part of the intelligence of the universe.
I believe in honoring and mining the collective unconscious.
I believe Picasso when he said:
"When you begin a picture you often make some pretty discoveries. You must
be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does
not really suppress it, but rather condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes out in the end is the result of discarded
finds. Otherwise you become your own connoisseur"