Field Chatter, 2006, Oil on Canvas, 54″ x 66″

MY WORK

Lately, my work has focused mainly on the hidden, or unseen elements of landscape: the west wind bringing new weather, the buzzing and hissing of insects, bird song and chatter, shifting pockets of cool and warm light, the scent of distant mown hay or manure or salt air, the feel of grass or mud or stone on my feet.

These paintings can serve the viewer as guides to losing oneself in reverie, similar to my experience in which I am aware of patterns and layers of sensual information on a wide variety of scales simultaneously. Through all of my senses I allow myself the luxury of getting lost in seeing, in thought and in the exploration of paint itself. The visual vocabulary of these images explores connections between a direct and thoughtful observation, spontaneous sensual input (a sudden raven’s cry, a cool breeze, the smell of a nearby milkweed), with the pleasure of invention.

I want the paintings to stand on their own as reminders that it is a wonderful thing to "get lost" in a pond, a wooded place, a field, or in a work of art, and come away renewed, energized, thoughtful, confused, enlightened, angry or amused. Most recently, the sounds of a place and the trajectories of insects have held my interest and gaze the longest, so many of the recent pieces are both "views" of a place and the awareness of events which cannot be seen but which are essential to being there.