Artist Statement

I am looking for a way of creating that shows the idea that all things are interconnected and one, that everything is part of a larger whole. At the same time, I want to make visible the fact that although things are connected they still differ. Ultimately, I wish to depict the paradox of interconnected individuality.

I use the objects that surround me as a point of departure to depict the concept of interconnectedness. A plant, chair, or teapot are signifiers or metaphors for anything and everything. Clusters of objects become metaphors for other clusters, like a molecule is a cluster of atoms or a human being a cluster of cells. The objects in the still life come together to make a larger form. I am interested in this shape as a whole but still want to allow some individuality to the objects within. At times I take away the name of a specific object and in some instances completely cancel out an object’s identity. In this way, the objects start to become more a part of a whole than individual things. Parts or all of the composition start to diffuse into each other, compressing space while at the same time creating atmosphere.

To create a stronger sense of unity I have limited my palette to four pigments (red, blue, yellow and white), and all colors start from a neutral gray mixed with the primary colors. I use this neutral gray as a unifying base (in my drawings the white of the page acts as this base or unifier) and then lean that gray towards warm/cool, dull/saturated and light/dark. I try to keep everything close to the neutral base and depending on how much I push the color, the objects emerge from or dissolve into the ground. There is a heavy build up of paint that becomes almost relief, as I search for the balance between focus and letting the composition fuse into one. The thick paint acts as a screen, and adds another level to the painting which brings the viewer’s attention back the two-dimensional aspect of the canvas, and the fact that everything they are looking at is on one plane. I am interested in this flux between two and three dimensions that painting allows and how it can work as a metaphor for the apparent paradoxes of reality.