Statement:

My painting practice expands on the exploration of landscape and land-use, encompassing not just the natural and artificial features of a space but also the passage of time, and the social and psychic resonance that shapes our understanding of place. This conceptual inquiry is accompanied by my invention of innovative painting techniques that embody a subject as well as depict it. Through this investigation, I aim to create a visual narrative that reflects humanity's place within the cosmos. Using the landscape genre as a foundation, I delve into both traditional representations—offering broad, establishing views of a place—and focused examinations of the artifacts, marks, and organizational features left by human impact. This approach is driven by my interest in the familiar versus alienating qualities of physical and psychic spaces, which often evoke a sense of the uncanny in my paintings. 

My research is informed by a diverse set of tools and resources, including earth surveillance technology like Google Earth, illustrated science books on cosmology and nature, academic writings, and my own fieldwork in the outdoors. I use an array of both traditional and experimental painting techniques to create textures that "feel" like as well as look like their reference. Using measured amounts of oil, pigment, and mineral spirits, I pour, splatter, stamp, and stencil paint to create the likeness of geological patterns, plant structures, and flowing water. The elements of the scene waver between rendered illusions in pictorial space and painterly marks on the surface.

I choose imagery based on its ability to call out something about the predicament of our relationship with and use of the land we inhabit. A tire tread in the sand evokes outdoor recreational ethos but this brute mark takes on a Fibonaccian perfection, situating even our most quotidian activities in the cosmos. The image of a sprinkler, at once, evokes suburban American malaise, while taking on the phenomenal importance of water traveling great distances to bring life to an parched landscape. In my "Oceanfront Property" series I paint sandcastles to draw attention to precariousness of coastal living in the face of sea-level rise. 

My work traces our attempts at taming and terraforming an unwieldy world. Humans shape the planet like a block of marble, dividing ecosystems into territories that create both real and imaginary chasms between peoples and places. By delving into the connections between the familiar and the unknown, the material and the cosmic, I create paintings that invite viewers to reconsider their place within the vast, interconnected web of existence.

News:

Conversation with The Creative Independent, On Making Art No Matter What, March 7, 2024

Review of Strike- Slip at Bel Ami in Frieze Magazine August 2022

Review of Strike- Slip at Bel Ami in Contemporary Art Review LA, September 2022

Review of Strike- Slip at Bel Ami in Artillery Magazine, September 2022