My work combines the detailed textures and organic shapes of the natural world with the hard lines and geometry of man made structures as they relate to the restorative benefits we feel from time spent in nature vs our basic need for shelter and the structures we have built to satisfy that need.
Many people move routinely through the same environments each day whether it be their home, place of work, a running path, or a daily commute. As we do so we may feel a connection toward these places based on the accumulative time spent there. These different environments affect us in different ways. We enjoy the benefits of artificial enviroments as we live and work. Such environments are designed to allow us to live in comfort and protect us from the elements. Spending time in natural settings often reminds us how artifical spaces remove us from the natural world. Just recalling outdoor experiences can increase our happiness and health.
As I work in layers of found images, watercolor washes, and sharp acrylic lines I am trying to bridge the gap between these worlds and find the balance in spending time in both places as well as reflecting on the experiences and memories that have been built up in the places I have inhabitied each day for months or years at a time.
As I have inhabited several states over the past few years I’ve grown interested in the attachment and loss that comes as one grows fond of a new place and then must leave it.
Each painting is not a specific place, geographically, but the memory of places generally. Most of the collaged elements are taken from images of nature-nature being a significant part of the make-up of a place. The collaged elements which were once a complete picture are taken from their context and added onto, changing into something new much like one’s perception of a place is changed as one has experiences and memories there.
The place one inhabits becomes part of one’s identity; an identity that must be partially redefined as that place is abandoned and a new or unfamiliar place inhabited. These paintings start as a blank piece of paper-an unfamiliar place-and are added to until they become something complete.
28X21 inches
mixed media on paper, 5 X 6 inches.
mixed media on paper, 6 X 4.5 inches.
7X6 inches
mixed media on paper, 12 X 11 inches.
mixed media on paper, 9 X 7 inches.
mixed media on paper, 8 X 6.5 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 5 X 7 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 9 X 7 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 7.5 X 5.5 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 9 X 7 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 9 X 8.5 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 10 X 12 inches.
Mixed media on paper, 11 X 11 inches.
A visual commentary on parallels between processes in nature and the human experience.
mixed media on paper, 8 X 10 inches.
mixed media on paper, 7 X 8 inches.
mixed media on paper, 8 X 10 inches.
mixed media on paper, 11 X 15 inches.
