Artist Statement

I start each piece abstractly and playfully–building layers, making marks, and adding texture–without any idea where things are headed. Eventually, a figure with its own unique personality asserts itself from among the random shapes and tells me how to finish the painting. Sometimes my figures show up early; other times they play hard to get, lurking until I’ve almost given up on them.

 

These creatures exist in some wonky alternate universe where it makes perfect sense for an arm to dissolve into a paint drip, or an eye to float adrift of the face it belongs to, or a dog’s body to be attached to a bird’s head.

 

But I like to think that as bizarre as they look, they still feel very familiar to us because we recognize ourselves in their emotions and experiences: grief over a lost love, the sting of unrequited affection, the ease of true companionship, pride, anticipation, panic, faith, joy, and more. 

 

We connect with these characters. They are alien yet deeply human: kindred spirits to us, imaginary friends.