ABOUT MY WORK
My paintings are derived from combinations of observations of landscapes, photographs, objects or images of other paintings. Recently, I have been using the book covers of specific Self Help and Philosophy books to serve as a reflection of, or a mirror for our constant search for truth within ourselves. I find the trope of “painting as a window to the world” a useful starting point for the possibility that the subject of a painting can portray itself, and simultaneously conjure up far more complex relationships.
From the perspective of physically putting a painting together, I like to reveal the pathways. From the perspective of what the painting becomes, I want it to hold within it the energy and the humanity of it’s making – the back and forth, between painting and object, between me and the painting, and the viewer and their associations. Between what’s “real” and what’s magical, between what’s there as material and what the material suggests.
Since 2006, I have been working alone and with artist Steve Lambert on an ongoing “sign project”, making signs for public locations around NYC. We spend time making simple paper drawings and then put them out into the world. The statements on my signs tend to be those that I might say to myself, most times to reassure against my own doubts. I post signs where people will see them, and where I feel they can make an impact. They become gifts, and my only artifact is the photograph. My hope is that my paintings might inspire reflection in the viewer within an art context, while the “signs” become a more direct invitation to grant the internal permissions I grant myself to the public as they are passing through their day.
COLLABORATORS
Transmedia Post Graduate Program in Arts, Media and Design
FELLOWSHIPS
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for Graduate Studies
Tyler School of Art, University Fellowship for Graduate Studies
RESIDENCIES
The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Vermont Studio Center, Joan Mitchell Fellow
TEACHING
Chiang Mai University, Faculty of Fine Arts