A personal sense of place amid the rural environment informs the abstract vocabulary of my work.
My use of material in these current paintings relates heavily to sculpture in the sense that the materials represent tactile experiences I have encountered both visually and through touch, rather than being illusionistic renderings of strictly visual perceptions.
I create paints by grinding specific stones that are part of the landscape - slate, marble, mud mixtures - as well as charcoal from wood grown and burned on the land, walnut ink from walnuts on a tree nearby, rust from the debree left behind by cars, and human trash. The materials are significant because, when mixed in a medium like rabbit skin glue, they retain their individual characteristics while also being transformed into paint. The transformation is important because it makes it clear that the materials are being used within the context of painting. They are applied to a flat surface and done so with tools such as brushes and sticks, thus making the conversation around them one with the history of painting.
But why are they paintings and not sculptures? They are small, flat objects because the ideas in them are conveyed through ambiguity of scale. The intimate size creates the potential for an interaction that still employs the imagination and internal transportation of the viewer. These are not forms that need to be actualized, or concretized, in their final formation; they are only partially viewable and, therefore, must be completed in the mind. The emphasis on the mind represents an emphasis on the importance of imagination, creativity, and introspection as we interact with our changing environment. It is also an emphasis on internal transportation as opposed to physical transportation because the landscape, or sense of place, is not only external, but internal as well.
My use of material in these current paintings relates heavily to sculpture in the sense that the materials represent tactile experiences I have encountered both visually and through touch, rather than being illusionistic renderings of strictly visual perceptions.
I create paints by grinding specific stones that are part of the landscape - slate, marble, mud mixtures - as well as charcoal from wood grown and burned on the land, walnut ink from walnuts on a tree nearby, rust from the debree left behind by cars, and human trash. The materials are significant because, when mixed in a medium like rabbit skin glue, they retain their individual characteristics while also being transformed into paint. The transformation is important because it makes it clear that the materials are being used within the context of painting. They are applied to a flat surface and done so with tools such as brushes and sticks, thus making the conversation around them one with the history of painting.
But why are they paintings and not sculptures? They are small, flat objects because the ideas in them are conveyed through ambiguity of scale. The intimate size creates the potential for an interaction that still employs the imagination and internal transportation of the viewer. These are not forms that need to be actualized, or concretized, in their final formation; they are only partially viewable and, therefore, must be completed in the mind. The emphasis on the mind represents an emphasis on the importance of imagination, creativity, and introspection as we interact with our changing environment. It is also an emphasis on internal transportation as opposed to physical transportation because the landscape, or sense of place, is not only external, but internal as well.
