For me painting is a contact sport. 12 rounds no knockout, tomorrow is another day.” ~ Susan Carr, artist.
The quote captures the spirit of my own approach. And recently, another artist responded to my paintings by saying that my work made him feel as though he were, “holding back”. I try not to hold back.
As a child, I had free reign to dress myself. I mixed florals with plaids and paisleys, added stripes. To their credit, my parents were never afraid my teachers would think them negligent. It was simply an early indicator of my artistic bent. I am still mixing stripes and paisleys, synthesizing genres and styles to create paintings. Painting is how I negotiate life.
The visual excitement of excess and a strong sense of animation are the defining characteristics of my paintings. They invigorate and unify my work. The energy of the work begins below the surface and moves up through many layers. Like a magpie, I scan my environment, am attracted to surprise elements of color, pattern or texture, and then collect, interpret, and use those moments. I use unorthodox approaches to explore and resolve formal concerns of composition. I cut away big hunks, paint on the reverse side of the stretched canvas, and/or combine several canvases together. The process of translating my inner vision to the tangible is done intuitively.
The viewer is encouraged to move slowly through each painting in order to examine and make sense of the stimulus, thus, uncovering bits that have been assimilated from other artists who have served as models of inspiration, fabric sighted at a store or other images that have intrigued me.
My practice is rooted in the philosophy that my studio is my science lab, I experiment, I discover, I record, and sometimes I blow things up.
