Artist Statement
No two people, whether they’re artists or not, see the world the same way. I start with reality, rearrange and interpret it, and then convey my version of what I see, visually and emotionally.
In doing this, I seem to vacillate between two poles. On one side is my love of the predictable and quantifiable, such as discrete letters and numbers, or a realistically captured still life or portrait. On the other, there’s an emotional flight through colors and shapes and things that exist only in my head, reflecting my love for the dramatic.
In practical terms, I have a fifty percent deficit in distinguishing red from blue. There are means I employ to compensate for this, but I believe the dulling of what I see before me explains my appreciation for brighter, more pronounced colors. It’s also why I tend to place colors not where they actually are but where I imagine they might happily reside.
I was first inspired to paint at age five by my mother and her sisters who were all accomplished oil painters. Even then, I liked vivid colors and manipulating shapes. As I got older, I discovered artists like Richard Diebenkorn and Edward Hopper. Both strategically used color to convey mood and emotion, and both gravitated towards a simplification of form that continues to inspire me, especially in my representational work where I strive to cast off extraneous detail.