Statement
My work is a process of searching through paint. I explore the relationship between the emotional and the intellectual and respond intuitively with distinctly personal marks. I paint freely but with formal restraints, respecting the integrity of the structure in the attempt to create tension. I intend to communicate to the viewer a recognizable sensation by forcing expression into a system, impulsively painting with regard for the logical.
My process begins with paint, pencil and grease markers on canvas with a thin wash and finely drawn lines that establish a structure for the painting. Next I apply opaque and transparent stratums of organic and hard edge geometry as a spontaneous reaction to the marks that came before. Some of the other parameters that I use as tools to push against are restrictions of scale, value, colour intensity and pattern.
My work is inspired by the unapologetic confidence of abstract expressionism. I have been influenced by Willem De Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Deibenkorn, Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombley and Joan Snyder. I relate to the surrealist movement in regards to automatic drawing, using the creative unconscious as a valid navigational tool.