Artist Statement

I make art in order connect with the deeper currents of reality. 

The human eye can perceive only 2% of the electromagnetic spectrum, the other 98% is invisible to us. Since I learned about this as a child, this fact has shaped my understanding of reality.  It makes me wonder: What else in our daily lives remains invisible to us?

This question acts as a kind of inner compass when I make art. It points me to moments that serve as the intersections between the ordinary and miraculous.  The depiction of these intersections is the focus of my work.

I am primarily a self taught artist, who relies heavily on intuition, receptivity, focused observation, and the development of technical skill. When I begin a new piece, I rarely have an entire painting planned.  Instead, I usually start with an element or subject that strikes my imagination, sketch it out and then begin to learn, piece-by-piece about the larger narrative of the painting as I work.  The process of making a painting often feels like I’m in a kind of call and response with the creative forces of the universe. 

I look for clues about what messages or themes the painting is trying to convey. They can come from anywhere, in the words of my children, a passage in a book, a conversation with the checkout clerk at the grocery store, or in my dreams.  At some point, a moment appears where the answers come.  A story unfolds, and the painting reveals itself to me. 

When I’m engaged in this process, there is an ongoing dialogue between myself and the unseen world.  It’s a dialogue that highlights the extraordinary beauty and enchantment that waits to be realized, hidden just beneath the surface of ordinary life. Each piece I create is a new perspective of this hidden landscape; each one a topographical mapping of the contours and edges of transcendence.