paintings and works on paper 2006-2016

My purpose is to create symbolically resonant artworks that are neither abstract nor representational. This is work generated by a need to explore elemental emotions while balancing and reconciling the contradiction of making work that is both peaceful and energetic. These paintings are essentially metaphorical still lives. For me, they are image driven and rely on a search to understand and convert representational imagery into abstraction. The marks and images can evoke many objects, such as crosses, stars, nets, clocks, industry, organic and inorganic structures or vessels. These in turn function as symbols for cemeteries, eternity, the passage of time or the duration of loss. I start by limiting my choices of colors that reference random objects. My use of imaginary imagery forms figure---ground interchange and the integration of layers both opaque and translucent record a compilation of thoughts. I depend on a combination of controlling the medium with an image in mind and simultaneously submitting to the mercurial nature of reconciling spontaneous actions. The deliberate discipline of my formal process demonstrates energy at sober and variable speed, without specific scale of the psychological space depicted. I resist the practical need to get done and let each piece evolve on its own schedule. I efficiently try to get to the point where no point exists. Subsequently, I work on many pictures simultaneously. I stop the work on each picture when it looks unintentionally intentional.