Tender, sinister, poised, awkward, elegant -- my work investigates from a variety of aesthetic and psychological perspectives what is essentially a philosophical question: why do human beings struggle to capture and confine that which brings joy, knowing such an object will inevitably alter, escape, die, or perhaps never have existed in the first place. Is this struggle an inherent part of existence? Each painting presents a distillation of emotion, imbuing the formal field with a spectrum of conflicting sensations. Bands of vibrant color meticulously outline an allusive, non- specific form which is really a space, an absence masquerading as a presence. Sentimentality, mawkishness, hauteur, fear, anger, and a plethora of other affective mutations and distortions taint the initial expression of joy, functioning as psychological mechanisms to cope with the impermanence of desire's objects. My paintings convey this corruption, but also strive to transcend it with humor and detachment. Embracing the permanence of transience, they replace emptiness with openness, with pleasure in the simple fact of being.
