Artist's Statement
My current work explores the sense of urgency that I feel about our environmentally and spiritually ailing world, and the importance of hope. Anyone working in the arts, or in any other field for that matter, must ask themselves what tangible good they are doing in the world beyond the gallery or the studio. I do not see myself as a political artist, but I am trying to better understand the artist’s role in social, environmental, and political change. For me, this means exploring ways for art to reach beyond its own sphere. I believe that people are best reached not through stridency and insistence, but rather through the engagement of imagination, emotion, and curiosity; therefore, I am also concerned with the difficulty of communicating urgent messages clearly while allowing for the gray areas of emotion and complexity.
While works such as Boat deal directly with the difficulty and necessity of hope on a large communal level, and Calendar seeks to invite viewers into a state of attentive awareness, other projects come from a more personal, internal perspective. My recent work in marbling has been exploration of form, color, and cellular activities, but also a meditative exercise on the delicate balance of control and relinquishing control, action and acceptance. In July is a record of a single summer day from my own life, and a recognition and lament of its passing - and the passing of all such days, both seasonally and historically.
My current work explores the sense of urgency that I feel about our environmentally and spiritually ailing world, and the importance of hope. Anyone working in the arts, or in any other field for that matter, must ask themselves what tangible good they are doing in the world beyond the gallery or the studio. I do not see myself as a political artist, but I am trying to better understand the artist’s role in social, environmental, and political change. For me, this means exploring ways for art to reach beyond its own sphere. I believe that people are best reached not through stridency and insistence, but rather through the engagement of imagination, emotion, and curiosity; therefore, I am also concerned with the difficulty of communicating urgent messages clearly while allowing for the gray areas of emotion and complexity.
While works such as Boat deal directly with the difficulty and necessity of hope on a large communal level, and Calendar seeks to invite viewers into a state of attentive awareness, other projects come from a more personal, internal perspective. My recent work in marbling has been exploration of form, color, and cellular activities, but also a meditative exercise on the delicate balance of control and relinquishing control, action and acceptance. In July is a record of a single summer day from my own life, and a recognition and lament of its passing - and the passing of all such days, both seasonally and historically.
