Artist's Statement
I am a figurative painter working on a series about the suspended-in-time moments when the mind is somewhere else. Mysterious works conveying the dark beauty that we all notice from time to time. Focusing on the line dividing what is experienced and what cannot be expressed in words.
My work is about moments when time is suspended and the mind travels to other places. In the painting “Somewhere Else” we see two identical men dressed in white shirts and gray-brown dress pants. They appear to be daydreaming while lying on a stretch of bright green grass and looking up at a blue sky. When we daydream, we are transported. We have an experience, which is often beyond words. We live whole other lives (as represented by the doubled figure). And yet, just as we sometimes seek to escape our present time and space, we inevitably return to it and, for all its complexity, the world continues to offer us hope for growth and renewal.
My paintings are not only about the transformation of a physical space, but are also about the transformation of people. Further, my images investigate the idea that transformation and change are inherently bound together with rest and waiting. While some aspects of people and places transform, other aspects lay at rest. While we improve one piece of our city and ourselves, other pieces must remain still. Change involves a balance of activity and passivity.
Minds wander and imagination takes over. The active imagination is at full speed only when the physical body is still. In this way, the figure represents the waiting we must endure while reconstruction takes place, but also the anticipation and wonder of what the future holds. Encouraging the viewers to mentally put in place the missing or disjointed pieces and imagine for themselves what the future will be.