artist's Statement

My work over the past few years has been an ongoing exploration of abstract imagery that evokes the intersection between conscious choice and the unpredictable. Sometimes, an initial concept has triggered a body of work. Other series have emerged as the result of experimentation with materials or processes that are new to me. My enduring interests in mapping, geography, geologic time and movement, long-term ancestry and the overlap between the visible and the invisible world surface in my work, despite its essentially abstract character.

The Pathways series, for example, began in response to reading Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways; a Journey on Foot and Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which started me thinking about the notion of wayfinding and ancient tracks on the land. That idea expanded into a meditation on the impact one generation has on those that follow and the interplay between individual decision-making and the subtle influences of family priorities, geographical location, social conditions and happenstance.

The Lines series followed on the Pathways work, as I pushed the linear flow of undulating lines toward increasing horizontality. For me, this body of work operates on two levels. It offers a visual vocabulary that expresses the trajectory of a life span, sometimes a clear arc and sometimes aimlessly meandering. On a formal level, it offers abstract imagery composed of complex networks of gestural lines engaged in a dance with swirling clouds of intense color washes.

The Longview series began as a purely formal investigation in which I overlaid a rigorous band of horizontal lines over a “landscape” of diaphanous ink washes. The Surprise paintings, on the other hand, were originally an investigation of natural forms – the shadows cast by weathered, disintegrating eucalyptus leaves. The initial imagery became a jumping-off point for exploring a limited color palette, value contrast, texture, layering and line, morphing into grid-like, formalist compositions.

The monochromatic Similarities and Layers series are my most current work and represent two strands of an investigation of another set of materials and processes I had not used - India ink and graphite sticks applied to yupo watercolor paper – can express the tension between intention and random chance. Both series have come to suggest me the deep and often indiscernible patterns that organize the universe as well as the underlying interconnectedness of all things. I intend this imagery to be open to interpretation by each viewer, however, or simply enjoyed for its visual qualities.

5/2017