artist statement
As a contemporary artist focusing on non-objective painting, it is not my intention to create an abstraction of a material subject. I'm interested in expressing emotions and inner states of mind rather than describing what the material world looks like.I work in a variety of media, from oil, acrylic and mixed media. I use several layers,using many different textures, such as sand, clay, glass, wire and ceramics,giving a variety of textural elements to my pieces. Some are cannibalized from works on paper or linen, cut up and combined with other paintings on canvas. Sometimes I let the content of these elements show, and sometimes they are buried and survive only as shapes.Either way,these components become an integral part of my work.None of my paintings are planned,except for a vague concept or tentative design.I develop each piece as I go along.I tend to blend my colors directly on the canvas, and then layer several glazes. I avoid identifying shapes and forms.Instead it is a matter of color as energy. Color moves us on a subtle or subconscious level.I continue to challenge myself and am always working to refine the color palette,using more intense or subdued colors in the color harmony. My paintings are about this emotional richness of color, texture and my love of nature.
During the process of creating, art can take you from where you started to someplace else and suggest a variety of paths to take. This exhilarating journey is an expression of my emotions and ideas and ultimately my own personal language.I see the paintings as snapshots of unmistakable moments when the world seems suspended.
Lately I have been working on a new series of landscapes. These landscapes or seascapes are expressed in a direct and immediate way. color and form are created intuitively through gestural brush strokes using acrylic, oil, texture and various mixed media. All the paintings were done in my studio and are an outgrowth of my non-objective compositions.
Rather than re-creating a landscape on a canvas, I aim to express its essence. Obviously, no single work can hope to convey the complex spirit of any landscape. I enjoy the free, continually changing, abstract qualities of acrylic paint or oils in my landscape work. Each multi-layered rendering shares some details with the other works in the series. The overlap of elements enriches each individual expression and deepens the cohesion within the series. Ultimately, each piece captures some fragment of the landscape's power until the larger body of work coalesces to express its deepest essence.
When looking at contemporary art, especially non-objective art, I hope the viewer will leave the objective, material world and enter the world of the artwork. I would like the viewer to let himself respond emotionally to the abstract shapes, expressionist colours, and textures as well as to the way these elements are united and linked to each other.
I believe how the viewer interprets a painting, becomes the reality for that person.