“Landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected onto wood and water and rock.”
-- Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
The ponds, rock fields and tangled forests in my paintings are my internal wilderness projected onto the external world. The glass walls, grids and concrete bunkers are my attempt to erect something permanent and keep the wild at bay. The clashes that occur at this juncture illuminate the conflict between progress and nature inherent in my state of mind as well as in our contemporary state.
As an artist, I seek the intersection of myth and reality. My paintings stem from real life events that I manipulate and distort through lenses of fantasy, dream and theater. In this way, I aim at the emotional rather than the historical truth. I feel that it is important to give voice to metaphor in a culture dominated by fast fact sharing and faith in the scientific method.
I look to myths because they are the foundational structures on which generations of storytellers have crafted tales to address the concerns of their age. I believe that if the stories that shaped our society are not continually reborn in contemporary form they will become unintelligible. Much of human experience is unexplainable and it is vital to look to the tales of our ancestors to learn how they made peace with the unknown.
“Outpost,” my newest series of work, is inspired by my travels in Iceland and research on Icelandic lore. The sketches catalogue the places, temperatures, colors and textures that I encountered up north. The paintings begin to construct a longer narrative about what it means to build something to withstand the elements.
-- Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
The ponds, rock fields and tangled forests in my paintings are my internal wilderness projected onto the external world. The glass walls, grids and concrete bunkers are my attempt to erect something permanent and keep the wild at bay. The clashes that occur at this juncture illuminate the conflict between progress and nature inherent in my state of mind as well as in our contemporary state.
As an artist, I seek the intersection of myth and reality. My paintings stem from real life events that I manipulate and distort through lenses of fantasy, dream and theater. In this way, I aim at the emotional rather than the historical truth. I feel that it is important to give voice to metaphor in a culture dominated by fast fact sharing and faith in the scientific method.
I look to myths because they are the foundational structures on which generations of storytellers have crafted tales to address the concerns of their age. I believe that if the stories that shaped our society are not continually reborn in contemporary form they will become unintelligible. Much of human experience is unexplainable and it is vital to look to the tales of our ancestors to learn how they made peace with the unknown.
“Outpost,” my newest series of work, is inspired by my travels in Iceland and research on Icelandic lore. The sketches catalogue the places, temperatures, colors and textures that I encountered up north. The paintings begin to construct a longer narrative about what it means to build something to withstand the elements.