My interest in the landscape originates from my childhood wanderings through forests and fields. I recall being attracted to the spaces between man-made places - forests running along streams, the tall brush of the vacant lots, the tree lines between subdivisions and farm fields. These areas were a stark contrast to the groomed subdivision lawns; they seemed undiscovered, void of human intervention. They were intimate laboratories where I was able to witness the complexities of nature. Growing up, my access and connection to the landscape intensified as my family moved further and further into rural farmland. That landscape is where I became mindful of action and reaction, growth and decay, order and entropy.
I view the landscape as a symbolic platform, were the sum of geography, biology, meteorology, etc. unfolds in time. The complexity of the platform leaves us no chance of understanding it. How then do we retain, recall, and experience moments on that platform; and how can painting/drawing communicate those moments? It is with these questions that my practice as an artist begins.
The drawing and painting elements portray landscapes in various modes of representation (photo transfers, realist painting, illustrative drawing, abstraction, and actual objects). The tactile first-hand experience of objects removed from the landscape (tree stumps, moss, etc.) is juxtaposed against the visual experience of the landscape depictions. The contrast between flat, pictorial space and the deep space of the exploded forms establishes a relationship between the real environment and landscape painting as a “window to the world.” The complexity and variety of the artistic communication relates to the density and range of the experience. I am interested in the play between the abstract, realistic, symbolic and interactive as a reflection of experience.
I have made a significant move from line that describes movement on a flat plane to line that defines forms in space. There is now an “experience” of viewing the work that does not allow it to be viewed from one vantage point. One must move through the work and investigate its isolated areas. Structurally, It is important to me that the viewer in the gallery, embark on a process of discovery similar to my own within the landscape. The contrast between flat, pictorial space and the deep space of the exploded forms establishes a relationship between the real environment and landscape painting as a “window to the world.”
My process aims to emulate the landscape’s systems. I burry paper in the landscape before working on it, producing indexical stains. I dissolve portions of the landscape in water and use it to paint, stain, and grow other works. I work “through” layered sheets of paper, orchestrating the forms as if they were planes of time or remembered experiences.
