It seems like opportunities arise all the the time to fine tune and examine what I think about art making and my own work. I am not talking about the official write your statement, write a grant kind of moment, but the kind that sneak up and surprise you. Recently at an opening of mine, during a casual interview, a reporter asked me this question, ” How does your art tell your world view?” I started answering and then said I would get back to her. It was a tough question for me to answer off the cuff so I gave it a few days and tweaked my statement. I focus on fragments in my work, just as our culture is fragmented and disconnected but my worldview is one of interconnection. I try to reveal elements that many people have lost sight of, elements that communicate to a place deeper than words. My work is rooted in a sense of play and discovery, an intuitive dialogue between the random and the deliberate that allows a relationship between intent and accident to develop. I try to create in the place of “not knowing” and exploration. My paintings invite a deep, visceral response that evolves over time; they have a life of their own.
When I refer to fragments I also think about my photographs as being clues to how I see the world. My photos focus on fragments, close ups, shadows, light, texture, line and pattern not unlike my vision when I take my eyeglasses off. Astigmatism makes my world a blur so that details drop off. More about that here. Below is a picture I took in Tuscany about 2 years ago and underneath is a painting that I am working on in the studio. I had forgotten that this photo was hanging around. I find it interesting the way things get synthesized and regenerate in the work.
Tuscan Wall, photo, 2011
Tuscan View 30 x 30 oil and encaustic on board 2013
From the Train, 2013
Drawing 12 x 11 mixed media on Mylar 2013
One of the other opportunities I have had to look at my work was responding to artist Valerie Brennen’s interview for her blog Studio Critical.
Heading In 20 x 20 oil on board 2012
Here is an excerpt from that interview: Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.
My working routine and process are pretty close. I am at a point in my art making where I feel I have my tool belt pretty well stocked with a vocabulary, ideas, materials, and inspirations. I try to trust that and stay out of my own way. Work begins as play, play with great freedom and without judgment. Evolution comes from looking and paying careful, intuitive attention to what is happening in the work. If I am listening, my work tells me my story. My visual memory and interpretation of the world are more perceptive and in tune than my intellect. I believe in the idea of the spiral. Images and ideas that I have investigated in the past reappear again and again in a different form at different times. I have found my photographs to be very helpful, not as something to work from, but as an indicator of how I see the world. The most important part of my process is looking, editing and of course, deciding when a painting is done. One of my favorite times is coming back to the studio after a day of working to see the work again in a new light.
