Artist Statement

My subject matter is my interior world. In my paintings and drawings, I meet fear, anxiety, and overwhelm as if they were old friends. They have endless things to say to me and to each other. They speak with the panache of cartoon characters in scenes from the comics, thereby these difficult emotions take on softer edges. Look for the gnashing of teeth, the child-like scribble, the camouflaged characters, the defining ellipses, the exaggeration or obscuring of figures. Emotions are visible in colors emerging out of darkness or darkness scaffolding the image content. Darkness enchants me. There are always more permutations of it, some of which are not traditionally somber. In my eye, darkness is delicious because it has many tongues; it can speak the language of shadow as well as the language of clarity.

I approach a surface on which to paint or draw with a somatic imagination. I give my body over to its whim and energy. The result is a conversation between my physicality and the materials used. The dense color, vigorous brushstroke, charged mark of oil pastel, in juxtaposition with animated crayon scribble and cerebral pencil strokes, are visible manifestations of my inner dialogue. My artwork is fast. Here brushstrokes glide like the wind, there figures and abstraction play together and hints of a landscape manifest. I confer with surface and materials, approaching a work without preset conditions or conclusions. The exchange is frustrating and surprising in its unpredictability. Out of this emerge solutions that I could never have commandeered.