ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elements of the modern landscape have evolved into a sort of paradox. Industry has developed to sustain our lifestyles of necessity, comfort, and convenience, yet the actual means by which our goods and services are provided often become a sort of background noise or even an intrusive nuisance/eyesore. I revel in such feats of engineering – looking at architecture and the modern industrialized landscape with interest and wonder. My work represents those objects as man-made “fingerprints” integrated into the natural environment with varying degrees of harmony and tension.
Working with traditional materials and techniques (oil, watercolor, drawing), I create layers to evoke emotion, atmosphere, decay, etc. Careful consideration to find the cast of characters for each piece is usually the first step, as the places I choose to paint can be quite busy and cluttered. The placement of objects in the space is a priority and I will often treat a source photo as a still-life. Through extensive editing, which often involves reorganization and simplification of subject matter to suit a desired aesthetic, my compositions take shape. Some objects become monumental structures shrouded in soot and isolated, while others may mesh and mingle with one another.
I believe art is made to stir human emotion and to create a connection of some sort. My goal is to make images which trigger something within the viewer – perhaps a memory of a time or place which may or may not have anything to do with the subject they are looking at. The work must speak to the viewer and it will communicate with each in a different voice, maybe it whispers, maybe it shouts…such is the excitement of making and looking at art.
