Artist Statement
Cyclical shifts of light, atmosphere, and plant life expose the transitory nature of reality. Observing these phenomena is a practice of mindful awareness—finding flashes of the sublime in the periphery of my daily comings and goings. The lifting of fog on a morning drive, the almost imperceptible decay of a log, or the fading of a much-awaited flower in the garden all offer evidence of the intersection of the substantial and the immaterial. The subtle slippage of time culminates in observable change. I collect the traces of these intersections through photography, memory, and physical plant matter collected while in my garden.
The process of collecting culminates in my studio practice as an attempt to grapple with larger questions of ecology and mutability. The paintings provide spaces where these evidentiary moments can be expanded, teased apart, and reorganized in suspension. They are composites built from fragmentary records of experience, often hovering on the edge between representation and abstraction. Smooth surfaces and soft passages of light belie an intensely physical painting process. Layers of paper and cut Tyvek shapes are painted and manipulated beneath the surface – pushed and pulled in and out of focus – then diffused by a semi-transparent layer of stretched polyester mesh. This layer flattens the surface again and is painted with acrylic and oil.
Throughout the painting process, the image slips in and out of definition. Layers are buried, revealed, and obscured again. Ghostly shapes linger. Colors emerge where another has been wiped away. The finished work is haunted by loss; absent portions of images lost in the painting process, the passage of beautiful things required for cyclical change, and irreversible ecological losses yet to unfold.