STATEMENT OF WORK

I paint on a variety of surfaces - glass, wood, bricks, foam, canvas, metal, found/disregarded objects. I work primarily with oil paint, and sometimes use found/trash, hardware store, construction site, dollar store objects in my work. I enjoy thinking about painting as being expansive and inclusive, a way of arranging materials, where the material of paint itself is just as relevant a component as a plastic coffee lid. I have no particular plan when I arrive to paint, other than to look around. I think "timing" is really the only ongoing backdrop behind decisions. It’s all happening, all the time, whether I notice it or not. A shadow I see for 2 seconds, falling leaves, these things around me occurring at a particular moment that I am a part of, that I observe. Everything is a matter of timing - colors together, forms meeting, thought, space/spacing, looking/noticing, returning.

I like to throw a lot of things on my studio floor for many reasons, two of which are that it keeps track of my whereabouts, internally and in space, and that it creates a potential for any object lying around to be introduced at any point in the process of making. Things being out and available means more opportunity for meaningful coincidences. All of the objects in my studio space are relevant to whatever is being made. It’s all, always, relational. This rock, those boxers, the next line being made, a spillage I keep stepping on. I look around, at the ceiling and floor of my studio. It gives me clues if I listen. 

Painting continues to teach me about life. The most basic and truthful struggles and insight enter into my thoughts and feelings as I paint. I love that painting continues to prove me wrong, my assumptions and perceived limits. Painting has taught me that I don't need to compromise - that things can be both ways, all ways, sitting together.