Artist Statement

Making a statement about my painting doesn’t feel authentic to my experience as an artist. Sitting here drafting this view I’m thinking about what I want to say about my work. This also doesn’t feel related to my experience.

Can it be said I am an artist when painting but other times, no? I see I’ve been led to a question. When am I an artist? An artist question seems more appropriate at this time. The creative process puts me in question. When I begin to work, the first thing I see is how lazy I am, and how weak my attention is. I see I want to fall back on old tricks, things I know that will make a successful painting. But I’m trying to discover something new.

So I begin to let go of my old ideas, my habitual way of doing things, my grasping approach. I notice another part of myself, a quieter part. Instead of trying to make something happen, I try to allow more of this part to surface.

I’m very much interested in this process, not necessarily to make a good picture but to
discover something new. How can I bring more feeling to my work? Am I being honest about my experience as a painter? This questioning process leads to bigger questions such as who am I and why am I here?

My current work is very much related to something I’ve been doing for a long time—drawing. As far back as I can remember, I would draw pictures. Somewhere around the age of thirteen, I began to draw with India ink, dipping the pen into the ink jar. I was endlessly fascinated with the line and continued to draw using these materials to this day.

When painting seemed too demanding, I would draw. I always felt that the imagery and scale of my smaller drawings was stronger than in my larger work. I continued to paint and draw, and the surfaces of my paintings became quite interesting but somehow they lacked something, a quality the drawings had but I could never transfer to the paintings.

I stayed with it for over 20 years, and recently have been able been able to use the compositions from the small drawings successfully in the larger paintings.