painting + drawing
The recent bird drawings on 48" x 48" plywood squares are centered on goofy-looking dead birds surrounded by many cartoony flowers and tanks. These characters often occupy my imagination and show up as obsessive doodles. The image of a dead bird is potentially symbolic of so many things- death of beauty, environmental disaster, loss of innocence, and perhaps even Christ. We live with the consequences of our collective brutal humanity. .......but at the same time, I think the drawings are rather fun.
The more abstract acrylic and mixed media on plywood paintings have evolved from abundant collections of sketched-on scraps of paper and wood. Created through the accumulation of many marks and layers of paint, they are often glued together, sawed into smaller compositions, cut apart, reoriented, sanded, scraped, and repainted. It is often difficult to know exactly when a work is complete, but I try to make each painting evolve in a different way than the one that came before it. Like my sculptures, I'm not satisfied until I find the right balance between clarity and disintegration.
I want each work to exhibit a kind of awkward familiarity. These blobby diagrams suggest daily processes (and hint at a few possible narratives) and are informed by such non-art drawings as carved initials in trees, doodles, and the walls of a well-lived-in house. This daily record of mark making fascinates me, for it is an indication of the overwhelming need to leave a visible record of our existence.