ARTIST STATEMENT
December 2009
Humoring my quest to control temporality and appreciate nuance, my process begins with a fleeting moment. Outside, I record botanical shadows which are projected onto my sketchbook by natural sunlight. As the wind blows and the day wanes, I capture what I can. These drawings serve as both a collection of time and a language of mark. Consequently, my paintings are derived from these idioms, layering this frozen time until the marks are revived as moments of their own. Glazing, dripping, smearing, and scraping enliven the oil paint and allow the process to unfold organically. It becomes an adventure the paintings and I take together. As we respond to our previous intuitions, the final product remains unanticipated. In this way, the paintings release themselves from the drawings, becoming not of nature but natural. The improvised interactions of mark and shape parallel nuances of biological habitats. Simultaneously, a specific blend of earthly and synthetic color emphasizes the relocation of rural landscape to an interior, urban setting. The canvas sizes range from intimate to towering, functioning either as captured collectibles or overwhelming, overgrown worlds. Through these variables, the paint, canvas, and I thrive in a studio environment where time passes on our own clock. As the captured shadows transform into painted marks and chemical and physical interactions occur, the dripped, dried, and scraped moments invent a freeze-frame in a timeline of stacked events. The paintings become a nod to the past, an appreciation of the present, and a framework for the future.
In Matvey Levenstein's 2008 Art in America article, “The Naivete of Morandi,” Levenstein describes naivety as accepting expression as an inherent – natural – consequence of art. Raised in a farm town by parents with valued traditions, firm scruples, and a simple approach to living, I associate with this unabashed truthfulness; within such simplicity resides both strength and elegance. However, further deconstruction of my process reveals a mindset that breaks away from this naivety. Although the painted nuances maintain the naivety of those gathered outside, the manner in which time is measured by intuitive derivatives of stolen shadows (“captured time”) further impregnates them with a psychological complexity. With decisions as seconds and emotions as minutes, my quest to control temporality transcends the laws of nature and is able to be fulfilled within the language of the paintings.