Statements

 

GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

                                                                                                                                        -Nikola Tesla

My gouache and oil marker paintings hover between abstraction and representation: I employ a visual vocabulary consisting of layers, intricacy, spatial illusion, geometry, patterning, cross-hatching and implied movement. I speculate imaginatively about the mysteries of the universe: I am fascinated by quantum physics’ claim that time and space are tied together in a so-called continuum, and that at the sub-atomic level particles do seemingly impossible things following laws entirely different from those of the visible world. I am modestly attempting to conceive the inconceivable.

 

THE MANDALA SERIES

Sumptuous, intricate, ornamented, these oil paintings are richly referential — they call to mind a range of associations from mandalas, the cosmos, cells, lace, brocade and more. I feel aligned with the long history of geometric and floral ornamentation the Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, and European craftsmen have long employed. They did so with the implicit understanding that pattern and repetition, which are endemic in nature, are primal in their rhythmic connection to the human nervous system. I identify my work with the long tradition of visual artists interested in notions of cosmology. I am, as my friend the artist Thomas Lyon Mills says, painting worlds within worlds with the aim of revealing profound, contemplative, slow truths.