Statement
My lifelong interests – music, science, mathematics and art – are constantly being woven and re-woven into my paintings and works on paper. Because of my background as a musician, I have a strong feeling for musical metaphors. My interest in music is especially present both in terms of the visual intervals and patterns that appear in my work; physical engagement and a sense of performance is always part of my studio practice.
I am drawn to intersections: ideas that might seem to be at opposite ends of a continuum, like the organic and the geometric. My starting points vary: they can come from something personal, something glimpsed or from my experience of a piece of music. As a graduate student, I spent a lot of time around John Cage; his early influence, to this day, informs my studio practice of intention and chance.
My work attempts to create environments that I want to find in myself: they represent internal worlds that I am attempting to externalize and share. My pieces are minimal and balanced, yet full of rhythm and asymmetry. However life’s beauty is expressed, however it is felt, has to do with a feeling of calm, inside and out. I love what the late jazz musician Charlie Haden said: “The artist’s job is to bring beauty into a conflicted world.”
Each work and each series is a visual diary of my explorations. My ideas evolve as I apply my sense of order and play to the images and materials at hand. I may start with an idea in mind, but somewhere between intention and chance I find new directions. I’m never quite sure how a painting will look until it’s finished.