STATEMENT OF WORK

Artist’s Statement

My work frequently draws from images and influences of ‘60s and ‘70s pop culture found in cookbooks, soap operas, pop music, advertisements. From these, a landscape is constructed where the figures in my paintings may feel a sense of belonging at last. But through the degradation of these landscapes--often with the introduction of unexpected or humorous elements--things are never really comfortable, and the familiar is made strange and unsettling. Is lost.

The iconography of spirituality is also a theme here. My work can be seen as narrating the search for spiritual ground or meaning to replace a lost community or alienation from deeper cultural roots: strange pagan rituals, contemporary witchcraft ceremonies visited by hazy spirits that never quite materialize.  Just as with the images of the past, my interest in modern-day spirituality explores the cultural alienation fostered by displacement and the constant movement across geographies inherent in contemporary life.

My own daily artistic practice is a constant rehearsal of these themes:  One year I only painted on 5”x7” cards; another year I turned those cards into illustrated “daily affirmations” that I posted on social media.  These affirmations, my commentary on self-help culture, were sometimes sincere, sometimes ironic, and often both.  And for the past two years, Utah-based artist Dennis Reynolds and I formed our own quarantined artist residency called Yuma Beach Residency Program, named in tribute to our strange, unsettling Arizona hometown.