Artist Statement

My paintings are an exploration of entropy, the tendency for all things to decay over time and fall into disorder. When I study decay in depth, it reveals what the passage of time feels like and broadens my awareness beyond the trappings of daily experience. I am reminded of the minuscule role I play in a wide universe and am given the freedom to enjoy my place in the spacious arc of human and natural history.  

I use a daily walking and looking meditation to deepen my understanding of movement and space. This practice informs my work greatly. The paintings are a record of the many objects, people or environmental conditions that have interacted with a given space.

Locations are painted to appear as if they are disintegrating back into surfaces of residual marks. Human forms fade into layers of light and background space. The viewer is provoked to seek out moments of clarity and story within an unpredictable field of abstracted shapes, motion lines, light and color.

My materials are essentially water and wood. I use many layers of acrylic paint, inks and colored papers. These are repeatedly sanded, scraped and renewed over the course of months or years. Mark-making and form are imposed and revealed on continuously evolving surfaces that act as a visual logbook for the passage of time.

My recent “Playground” series is an investigation into memory of place. The playground is where we first experience public space and real-world social dynamics. It’s where we start to form our identities apart from our families. Moments of power, defeat, affection, and trauma unfold with the other children. I use painting to evoke these potent experiences of childhood and to explore the emotional connections to the spaces in which they take place.

My paintings are a study of memory and time. By exploring the organic effects of the passage time on urban spaces, surfaces and human stories, we are reminded that each of us is but a tiny facet in an expansive natural world. We exist in a present moment that is buttressed by a rich and layered past and an ever-unfolding future. This broadened scope has within it a liberating quality, and offers a sense of respite from the limitations of our individual lives.