newer artist statement

"For years the vast open plains have intrigued me in their simple beauty. I recall hours of watching the landscape span past me in bands of color from the backseat of our Buick station wagon during family cross-country trips. I am still mesmerized by this understated beauty. The landscape around me has shaped my aesthetic.

The horizon has captivated me, first as a visual expanse, secondly as a symbol of the human condition. Each goal we strive for becomes a line in our near or distant future. For me, these horizons are about our transitions, representing our goals and aspirations, the possibilities of what lies ahead, and our intention for the future. As we reach a goal, others may appear. – [I suppose depending upon the ambitiousness of a person, but it is my observation that human nature is to stretch our reach.]

The act of cultivation in agriculture intrigues me, I appreciate the attempt made to tame the enormous and ever-changing entity of land. I'm sure at times a seemingly futile task. But the repetition and difference involved is very exciting and entrancing to me, this meditative rhythmic difference and repetition also emerges in the visual language. A harmonious, subtle tension created by an integration of structure and the unplanned. Horizon is the channeled form; Color creates a dialogue.

I now find myself documenting my cross-country travels by digital camera, I rarely utilize these snapshots in my paintings – usually just to spark my memory of a place or a particular moment. The paintings are therefore not a literal translation of the place, rather a filtering of my experience of the day, shaped and fueled by my internal dialogue.

While the landscapes become outlets/or reflections of my personal relation with the world, the viewer often does not see this translation, at least not initially. The fact that they may read into it their own story makes me want to share such imagery more."