Artist Statement

Figure and ground meet and disintegrate in my search for the structure of line against atmospheric space–demanding a constant negotiation between drawing and painting. Hovering between form and formlessness, representation and abstraction, my physical relationship to trees and architecture in my environment provide an entry into the drawing and painting process. Nature presents color, while memory saturates it. Working with my sense of my lived experience of location, the paintings evoke place.

Beginning from observation I work my way back to the demands of the painting itself, in an activity of layering, scraping, scratching and sanding. The physicality of my process builds a dense texture that adds to the play between surface, space and depth. Utiilizing materials from the long tradition of illusionistic oil painting, I destroy that tradition while extending it in my own time.