Statement:

I am an observational painter working primarily with the still life and self-portrait.  I paint in a responsive manner, depicting arrangements of objects or my own likeness viewed in a mirror.  The forms that occupy my paintings are depicted at or near life-size, and within reach of the viewer.  They are presented simply-unadorned and intimate. 

Painting is a way of marking time.  Time is the aggregate of painting.  Adjustments of proportion, tone, and color create an articulation of form built on extended observation.  My paintings retain traces of these revisions, functioning as both image and object.  Focused observation is transformative, imbuing the ordinary with complexity and depth.  The longer I look, the more this complexity is revealed.

Still life speaks to the passage of time, loss, and fragility.  It is tied to the home, inseparable from domestic space and the intimate moments that comprise daily life.  The self-portrait holds a similar space.  To paint a self-portrait is to regard oneself as both I and other, an interrogation, but also an act of compassion.  I am drawn to these practices because of my interest in exploring the familiar and the overlooked.  To engage with the mundane is a form of reanimation, an affirmation of a subject’s continued significance regardless of age or condition.