Red Green Tan 2020 acrylic on canvas 36”X60”
Green Black White 2020 acrylic on canvas 36”X60”
Time and Again 2003 acrylic on canvas 50”X79”
My work is all about making sense of the world around us, of confronting and grounding us in the here and now. Sometimes my methods are rather clear as in my ‘Tin Painting’ series wherein I juxtapose galvanized sheet metal panels with similarly sized painted canvases arranged in a diptych format. Addressing at once our mortality these works ask us to stop and look more closely at our fragility.
At other times my language is more obtuse, a little more difficult to fathom, as in the painting ‘Knocking at the door’ with its larger size, 70”X67”, and expressive gestural strokes commanding attention.
Throughout my work I aim to entice the viewer into quiet contemplative moments as a means to escape their constant fast paced data driven lives. My offerings are varied and structured to mix up the viewing experience; at times serious, at times whimsical. In the painting ‘Dantes Inferno’ a vision of the hell is presented, a suffocating environment articulated through a fiery cauldron of yellows and reds which float and envelop the upper portions of the work in contrast to the seemingly scratched and clawed darker tones of the lower areas. Presented as a metaphor of our current unsettling pandemic times.
In other works I offer more lighthearted visions as in the paintings ‘Loose Lips’, ‘Rats in the Dumpster’ or the comically titled ‘The Curious Incident of the Frog in the Tree’. I do not pretend to offer answers but to pose questions.
My practice as an abstract painter is not an easy endeavour. It is born of uncertainty, of soul searching, of reworking, ‘aha’ moments and much more.
It is akin to the range of emotions brought to the viewing experience by the spectator. I dig deep, agonize and expect much in return.
To peer into ourselves is not an easy exercise.
Nor should it be.
