Artist Statement
When you consider any visual composition, objective or nonobjective, concrete or abstract, it is merely a collection of elements reacting to one another in a defined and designated space. If one supposes that the ancient stereotypical Alchemical model of the transformation of lead into gold is a metaphor for making something of little or no value into something of great value, then the Philosophers Stone must certainly be the Human Will, imbibed with curiosity, patience and passionate desires. The possibilities, both symbolic and literal, from the theatric arena the canvas provides, are limitless.
Much of the inspiration for my work comes from architecture, film and music. In architecture, I am fascinated by the interactions and relationships between the structural components. In theater and film it is the construction of the narrative and its consequential movement through time and space that interests me. The qualities I love about music, especially improvisational jazz, are spontaneous invention and the fact that something so nebulous and fleeting can make such a lasting impression on the listener.
In 1915 the cartoons of Rube Goldberg became internationally popular and I suspect it is no coincidence that Marcel Duchamp began work on his opus, The Large Glass, in that same year. Both of these artists presented their work as mythological Avant garde engineers, displaying the process of human phenomenon in an unorthadox, mysterious, and often humerous ways.
Currently I have been establishing a very deliberate symbolic vocabulary with which to express content. Several years ago I stumbled upon a method to personalize this unique form of vocabulary using symbols and forms from my own subconscious. These euphemistic forms are placed into a system reminiscent of factory mechanics and anatomic biology, to illustrate a series of actions and reactions which serve as metaphoric symbology for human or inhuman phenomena.
With titles such as Skepticism, Compulsion, Intuition, Integrity, and Entropy, I am trying to create an experience for the viewer that is mysterious and evocotive, unusual and compelling.
Water based paint affords me the immediacy to build my paintings using a perpetual process of editing and re-editing and the use of charcoal gives them an expressive nature. I try to expose my editing process in order to infuse the picture plane with history (movement through time) and a sense of structural depth.
My ultimate goal is to produce museum quality work.
The rich and expansive history of painting clearly shows that there is no plateau for artistic expression. Like the music of John Coltrane, it is an infinite search for new vocabulary and form, the trajectory of which is through the cosmos and beyond.