Artist Statement
I create geometric abstractions inspired by rural desert landscapes. Through drawing, painting, and mixed-media works, I explore the metaphorical qualities of the land, sky, and hard-edged vegetation that characterize the American southwest. For me, the stark aesthetics of the western wilderness analogize the complexities of the human experience. They are the source material for ruminations about connection, relationship, and identity.
Working thoughtfully and with precision, I construct my pieces by drafting formational patterns and layering them over a prepared surface such as a sanded underpainting or collage. Sometimes the patterns are drawn and painted, other times they are built up with paper, acrylic mediums, or other media. I improvise color stories with each new layer, based on the emotions that arise from the evolving composition, and recalibrate as needed.
My preoccupations inhabit this process and I am increasingly drawn to the areas where dissimilar elements overlap or lie adjacent to one another. There’s a heartiness to these perimeters. They are the places where method and material collide, where shifting states of being become manifest.