My paintings are a synthesis of influences both visual and philosophical. I feel an affinity with Van Gogh and admire his gift to express his passion with paint through his use of color and the boldness of its application. I revere Monet for his consciousness of light. The compositions of Hiroshige and his genius for finding beauty in the unusual leave me in awe. The abstractions of Joan Mitchell amaze me with their sense of boldness and vulnerability. I am inspired by the noble eloquence of the ideas and writings of Emerson, Suzuki, and most recently numerous proponents of Perennial philosophy. The commonality, which unifies these artists and philosophers is a sense of timelessness and of finding bliss in nature. I have chosen to focus on the landscape because my relationship with nature gives me a sense of infinite potentialities and of belonging to something larger than myself. The search for meaning in life is complex and elusive, but I believe nature contains the potential and impetus to understand that which is universal.
My paintings seek to express my feelings for the landscape though a gestural and linear system of mark-making. The work begins with an on-site drawing that provides a basis and point of departure for an ensuing process of abstraction. As I paint and build up the surface of each painting, I move between the destruction of initial representation and abstract reconstruction based on formal relationships. I respond to the evolving formal relationships with expressive, gestural marks and explore and testament to the catabolic and anabolic processes inherent in all life in order to transcend and embrace former manifestations. I experience painting as a romantic and spiritual dialogue with both nature and the paint.
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