Primarily I work in oil and pastel.
These traditional mediums are used to create conceptually / idea
based artworks. The images
created are emphatically imagined.
Visual elements are used as symbols in all of my paintings.
They are the expression of ideas. Because all of the elements are symbols, light, shadow and color are
used not to imitate nature but as part of the vocabulary.
Land or seascapes when used, do not illustrate actual spaces but
create context. Light, darkness
and structural elements also serve to control what, where and how far one
can see into the picture plane.
Recent ideas and concepts, from which works are conceived are based on my
response to the observed. While
it is not important to me that others understand the conceptual bases for an
individual work, I hope that each painting resonates with the viewer in some
intuitive way on an emotional level.
Decisions on scale and medium depend on the idea upon which a particular
work is based. Pastel appeals to me because
of the purity of the color and because it is free from gloss, making the
surface appear soft and seductive. The dichotomy between the lushness of the
color and surface and the starkness of most of the images is a cornerstone
of works done in this medium. OIl is
used mostly for the larger works, when the size relationship between the
viewer and the art and the impact it has, become an essential part of the
dialogue. As most of what now
concerns me is not personal but the shared conditions of many, be they
environmental, political or cultural the scale of the ideas have changed.
Huge, immense, enormous, vast, all these adjectives are part of the
emotional response that I hope to evoke with the imagery in the paintings.
