Abstract
Through painting the figure, I seek to understand my world and myself; this search, like the work, teeters between representation and abstraction, the physical, spiritual and psycho-logical. The figures are both clothed and nude. They are often surrounded by water. Water, acts as a metaphor for calmness and spiritual solitude. That irreplaceable and rare solitude is my vehicle for symbolizing redemption. Philosophically the figure and water are intertwined. As the figure emerges from the physical and illusory element, amid this liquid space, a truly unique identity is born. The interaction between figure and water is profound and integral to developing formal aspects of my work, as well as simultaneously forging a conceptual context for personal discovery. Water often denotes freshness and renewal, a notion strongly con-trasted to the often-murky atmosphere of awakening presently expressed in my work. Through the relentless process of scraping, reconstructing, erasing, redefining, reconstructing myriad layers of marks, I build my world, using various media-oil paint on canvas or board, Conte on Mylar, and painted paper surfaces- layered several times. The manipulation of the media also informs intent and content for the work. I concoct fragments of stories and dream spaces; places I have inhabited or experienced and often endured in some profound way. As a figurative painter, I am not interested in the fanatic ideas of wholeness or well being equated with false idealism. My figures and I reside in brokenness, because the world is in fact broken. Through blurred and deliberate partial erasure of the faces, and sometimes-complete obliter-ation of any facial characteristics, identities are deliberately concealed, creating an unset-tling presence. Their fragmentation is my interpretation and presentation of the human spirit or physical form with all its embodied and hidden torments.