STATEMENT OF WORK

Ivory Black. This is the color that I see when I open my eyes towards the night sky. I also see this color when my eyes are closed, turned back to the void within. In Sea and Fog, Etel Adnan writes, “In space’s obscurity our eyes, created by the sun, fail us. They share the fate of our organs which are resigned to living in darkness.” If these spaces of darkness were illuminated by a flicker of light, what mysteries would unfold? Are there stars in my stomach, perforating my intestines? Would their atmosphere swell and swirl as one, churning my belly? Would gravity disappear as my eyes play tricks in their failure to focus? How far does infinity reach? These are the questions that I ask of painting. And in return, painting, with its slippery alchemical properties, reveals the answers. 

My paintings begin from the same point of genesis, expanding and evolving as one. After an initial acrylic pour, blank surfaces kiss, leaving imprints and lapping up stagnant puddles. Drips run off one canvas to splatter another. There is a leakiness to material, process, and image as translucent layers accumulate, obscure, blur, and fade. Form is derived from the investigation of weather systems, refracting sunlight, shapeshifting amoebae, constellations, plant networks, medical imaging, and the body’s internal void. By extracting and abstracting this subject matter, I grapple with ideas of unity, interconnectedness, and my place within the endless expanse. My paintings are not concerned with tactile nature, but rather its momentous and elusive forces. Through the action of painting, I chase the unseen, but ever present, sublime.