My works are exercises in problem-solving and in many ways can be considered battlefields. In the beginning, there tend to be areas that manifest themselves in one way or another and are void of a connection until a way is found. Once a way is found I must decide if it is indeed the right way. Sometimes this happens quickly and other times it takes longer. I tend to be skeptical of the times it’s too easy. When these areas and elements start to compete for attention, the battle begins and doesn’t end until there is harmony from edge to edge. The battles are not just about what gets covered up and what remains but also how the element is altered, skewed or destroyed completely.

 

Destruction and sacrifice are represented, ideally with no attachments to any color, shape or line. But I do fall in love, especially with line. My paintings are drawings as much as they are paintings. There is real struggle and sometimes there’s regret. Knowing when to pull the trigger is just as important as knowing when not to.  Everything must work in parallel or it becomes a waiting game. It is essentially controlled chaos.

 

“The aesthetics of painting were always in a state of development parallel to the development of painting itself.”

– Willem de Kooning