“The artist must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child.” Henri Matisse (1869 –1954)
My art brings together the aesthetics of abstract painting and printmaking with the materials used in the process of photography. I use both a control of the medium and an allowance for the accidental – control and chance. When I feel I have reached a balance between control and chance and the intensely physical connects with stillness, the work is complete. Themes I come back to time and again in my work include the concepts of mortality, transitoriness, nothingness, solitude, and ethereal tranquility.
My work, whether it is the darkroom paintings or the light manipulations is emotional not intellectual. It is about surfaces, light, and texture. I am a process-oriented artist. I work with photo chemicals, paper, tape, dirty floors, glitter, glue, and almost anything I can obtain. I have no preconceived notions about my art before I start. I let my frame of mind and emotions take over. The final pieces are richly layered deposits of color, hues, textures, and structure. They are repositories for subconscious thought. Texture is of primary importance, as I want the final surface not only to shimmer with vibrant hues and tones, but also to project a multidimensional mental picture for the viewer.
The common thread running through my exhibition and art making in general is the one of letting go of control and doing something just to see what will happen. Marcel Duchamp, said, “… In time the whole world will come to accept chance as a possibility to produce things.”