Artist Statement:
When I start a painting, I don't begin with an idea; I simply apply paint intuitively. One brushstroke begs another in a “just-so” response—a kind of hide and seek, “put some on/take some off” approach that makes liberal use of underpainting, layering and scumbling. It’s only after I've applied a fair amount of paint that an idea emerges. I’ll eventually see something in the chaos that suggests forms (in the manner that we often perceive things in the clouds or figures in a flame) but I try to let my subconscious dictate that. When I do perceive a form, I work to qualify it for others' eyes.
The appearance of images from nature in my work likely derives from my upbringing in rural Washington. I often use animal forms as symbols to address underlying human impulses, as at a particular level we have things in common with our animal brethren. At other times my images attempt to address my sense of the vanishing grandeur of nature in the face of indeterminate odds.
Otherwise, I’d assert that my images evoke seemingly familiar yet unattainable storylines —mysteries. Sometimes a title occurs to me early on, helping to steer the image as I work; sometimes I have to look at a piece for quite a while before a title manifests.
Burn developed as a response to wildfires razing much of the west. For me the image suggests a stand of denuded timber with haze extant. What is the haze? Perhaps fog, perhaps persistent smoke and steam. A hovering question, “What happened here?”
Artists who have influenced my development include JMW Turner, Paul Cezanne, Phillip Guston, Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning, Francis Bacon, and Anselm Kiefer.