Glimmer 72 x 96 inches acrylic on canvas 2019
What does a day in your art practice look like?
I begin the process by researching, collecting, and manipulating digital images. A composite image is completed and transferred to canvas using a wide variety of techniques. Finally, the canvas is approached with poured and spray paint, rollers, stencils, and brushes to complete the image.
I search, collect, and catalog digital images about utopias, dystopias, science fiction, and scientific and environmental studies, to name a few. These manipulated images are combined with geometric forms and 3-D models and further abstracted on my desktop. Files are saved and repurposed – sometimes reworked years after their original creation. A painting may be started one year and then revisited later when all attachment to the original intention has been abandoned yielding the most interesting results.
I divide my days into studio days and business/other days. On a studio day, I will start with putting on some music. I like to make an assessment of whatever piece I am working on and then plan a course of action. Sometimes taking a photograph and looking at it on my computer will help me to see the weaker areas. Because my work is very process oriented, I will map out what my next steps will be. I have a small 12- inch canvas that I use for testing paint colors and materials and I will test out my colors first before applying them. Sometimes I will become stuck on a particular painting in which case I will set it aside and work on something else until I have enough distance from it to go back into it with confidence. I will also take breaks and work on new concepts for future work. Sometimes I will recycle older works and revisit them – often erasing large parts of them and reconsidering key elements. I am something of a night owl, so having my studio at my house allows me to work late into the night when I am inspired.
What inspires you?
I am attracted to artists that layer images, pulling together images to create a larger narrative.
My work has been inspired by artist Judy Pfaff. Pfaff’s “Buckets of Rain” created after experiencing the loss of several important people in her life. She used the unearthed roots of a dead tree painted black and white, black lights, geometrically formed white plaster objects to create an other-worldly experience of something suggesting the after-life, loss, and a universal metaphysical questioning of the meaning of life.
The artist Sarah Sze creates structured organic environments using ordinary objects that you could buy at any office supply or hardware store. Her pieces take on the universal or cosmos while incorporating a structure that suggests the essential elements of life appearing to grow organically like a vine. Her works function as three dimensional paintings.
Julie Mehretu creates a multi-layered narrative – each vocabulary of images that form a cohesive image from a distance which breaks down into its complex individual components upon closer scrutiny. Her use of an abstract geometry creates depth, movement and the illusion of an explosion – like the big bang theory. Her work is both structured and organic.
I am inspired by all things visual. It could be a fashion show, a digital animation, or a visit to a museum or even a new city. I am very curious about everything and a voracious consumer of knowledge.
Psychostasia 9 – White Ghost (detail) 24 x 24 x 99 inches mixed media, paper, plastic, screen, chicken wire and string 2020
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
I was struggling with creating art that I imagined but lacked the technical ability to execute. One of my mentors told me to imagine how satisfying it would be to create this work and then proceeded to help me to develop the outside of the box techniques to execute my ideas. I think the best advice is to think outside of the box and imagine the impossible being possible.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
I did a residency where I was unable to make my usual work, and it opened me up to new ideas and new techniques that were very freeing. I sometimes need to take a break and do something entirely different to cleanse my mind. I need to pursue my other interests to keep myself curious. Most recently I’m enjoying the study of sci-fi and the aesthetics of technology. My aesthetic inquiry is based on the increasing digitization of the world and the multiplication of data. I am interested in use of technology and its ubiquitous effect on our culture. Most recently I have explored the terraforming and eventual colonization of Mars as well as climate related transformations of our planet. I am also interested in how the use of technology influences culture, the human brain, and how it expands human intelligence. I am currently working on a painting that looks at the transformation from an industrial to an information-based economy, and a body of work exploring the ramifications of wildfires and the resulting desertification. My interests range from climate changes in Ancient Egypt to the unexplored underground caves in pre-history Turkey.
Science Junk 50 x 40 inches acrylic on canvas 2020
What do you wish to accomplish with your art?
My art discusses the relationship between the human mind in all of its complexities and technology with its persistent ramifications on culture. I create images that allow technology with its digital non-human binary mark to become a co-author alongside organic human mark-making to create a final work of art. I consider myself an alchemist and my painting process is chaotic and baroque. The final results are overstimulating, haunting works that contain a barrage of information that is not perfectly arranged or pleasing. The images appear to be leaning towards an impending collapse meant to capture the collective angst of our times
How do you make the leap from an idea in your head to the action you produce?
I begin the process by researching, collecting, and manipulating digital images. A composite image is completed and transferred to canvas using a wide variety of techniques. Finally, the canvas is approached with poured and spray paint, rollers, stencils, and brushes to complete the image. I search, collect, and catalog digital images about utopias, dystopias, science fiction, and scientific and environmental studies, to name a few. These manipulated images are combined with geometric forms and 3-D models and further abstracted on my desktop. Files are saved and repurposed – sometimes reworked years after their original creation. A painting may be started one year and then revisited later when all attachment to the original intention has been abandoned yielding the most interesting results.
Ask Mr Science 50 x 40 inches acrylic on canvas 2020
Phenomena 70 x 66 inches acrylic on canvas 2018
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