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Beautifully Lost

My latest body of work explores mixed media landscapes. The landscapes possess an otherworldly quality, with floral mountains, abstract drips, scratching and etching, and dark, striped corners.  The floral paper collage element brings the work to another level of surrealism, as the cut-out flowers become the structure of the land itself.  Not only is the art making process a form of escapism, but the subject matter and content of the work depict the place in my mind that I can go to in order to get “beautifully lost.”  

My process begins by dripping paint on a blank canvas. Sometimes I recruit my young sons to help with some initial mark-making that may or may not peek through the finished product. I start to build up the background with gestural painted lines that vaguely resemble mountains.  As I move into the middleground and foreground, I begin to use bigger brushes and more saturated colors.  Eventually, I will start adding paper as the structure of the land.   Sometimes the art making process gets so engrossing that I dissociate into a deep flow and wake up to a totally renovated painting.  This is the intuitive process that makes it so therapeutic for me.   I build up layers of “mistakes” that eventually meld together into a piece that I deem “mostly finished.” I believe that there is a “soft finish line” with making art.  If you don’t take those last few final risks, your work might not reach its full potential.  If you take it too far, you can potentially lose it all.  

Displaced

I have been looking to the past for feminine archetypal subjects in my latest series of paintings.  I loosely appropriates female figures from historical masterworks and displace them in reclusive, outdoor settings. I look to address universal concepts of femininity and feminine archetypes that cross barriers of time and place.  Themes of oppression, objectification, and stereotypes overlap with hopeful depictions of tranquility, unity, and stillness. 

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I enjoy studying the gaze and the pose of subjects of Western classical masterworks from the 17-19th century.    Their dispondency is universal, and their their gaze and pose is perfectly appropriate in my obscure landscape settings.  Appropriation of these figures goes beyond the concept of master studies, because my intent is not to copy the painting style or replicate the original painting or subject, but rather displace the figure into a new, obscure context.

Setee

I have a fascination with historical furniture.   I began this series of setees in January 2021 when isolation was a daily norm.  Extra time was spent in our home, on furniture, with our immediate household.  Furniture became more important to me during this time.  Buying new furniture wasn't always an option, so I painted furniture as subject matter to visualize my aesthetic. This brought an opportunity to find beauty during a time where there was little else I could control.  

I portray the setee from a frontal angle in this series. I exaggerate its simple 1-point perspective with stripes and bold patterns to create a graphic composition with obscure, painterly backgrounds.  The perspective invites the viewer into its dark, distressed beauty. 

Landscape

Stripes are a reoccuring theme in my work.  I was drawn to landscapes as subject matter because of the way I observed leading striped lines guiding the topographical nuances of vast lands. 

I am drawn to built and natural environments that elicit a sense of mystery, drama, and isolation.  Dark shadows hide the secrets of the land, and blasts of light expose the beauty.  My lands are lonely, stark, and graphic with a colorful hopefulness that shines through the drama. 

Atrium

At the start of the pandemic in April 2020, I began to paint Mid-century atrium spaces. I was looking to depict unoccupied built environments that intersect beauty and isolation.  Using furniture as the focal point, my intention was to create a sense of drama that draws a viewer into the outdoor spaces confined by post and beam construction.  
I look to capture an anxious sense of anticipation that a space possesses during an absence of social experiences, and the emotional baggage of its occupants that it holds onto. The empty chairs and dining tables are lifeless tableaus that serve as a metaphor for togetherness and divisiveness.  

 

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