As a painter, I am interested in observing the communicative potential of the world I see. What we see but frequently overlook, trees, bushes, streets, and buildings are part of the contemporary landscape rich with visual and conceptual possibilities.
When the weather permits, I work outdoors, from observation, en plein air. I derive great satisfaction looking at and reacting to my surroundings. I endeavor to create engaging compositions with a clarity of color relationships.
When the weather is not co-operating, I move indoors. There, I have parallel activities. I create still lifes/landscapes to paint from. I also use paintings, drawings, memories and photographs to construct painted, cut paper collages. While painting en plein air, I challenge my observational conclusions by reducing the forms. With the cut paper pieces, I find a similar but even clearer method of reduction with the process of layering paper that lends itself to another point of expression that I desire.
When I am in the studio, there are instinctive and methodical explorations that happen with the process of cut paper. The two practices, working from life and invention in the studio complement each other, each approach brings unique qualities to the work and informs both.
These dual processes help me divest myself of limiting preconceptions. It becomes a necessary condition while painting from observation and while creating these paper paintings. The challenge is to translate visual information into work that speaks of its own making, as both image and object.
