I see being an artist primarily about entering into a fuller relationship with immediate experience, and with the mysterious, ungraspable nature of it all. Starting from a figure, a gesture, a place, a moment, a memory, a forgetfulness, an object or a feeling, the creative process unfolds. It is a dynamic in which the true meaning of the work is often only revealed after the act of creating it.
This process involves reflection, investigation, meditation, and unstructured time. I love the interplay between making art and allowing art to make itself, between conscious choice and the life of its own that the creative process takes on..
Exploring both representational and non-representational art, I generally use oils and acrylics along with less refined materials such as charcoal powder, metal, and found objects.
The element of chance is important in my creative process. The unexpected is part of the dynamics of the composition, a subtle game between the precision or strength of the brushstroke and mark-making, and the seeming randomness and uncontrollability of the materials used.
I tend to want to create works that at heart hold and communicate a serene strength. My hope is that by contemplating the paintings, others touch a place of authenticity and questioning, within the work and within themselves - a place where the everyday extraordinariness of our lives becomes more palpable in its elusiveness. In this sense, I think of works of art as what the ancient Celts called 'thin places' - places where the veil that blinds us to deeper realities becomes more attenuated.