My work is driven by an intense curiosity about places and the ways in which they connect, divide or define us. How do we fit in, what's our place in the world? Is it where we grow up or some adopted location that we connect with on a deeper level? The individual and unique parts of a place...it's culture and traditions, the languages, ethnic and architectural components, the quality of light, the color of the wind, the food, climate and terrain are all visual pieces of the puzzle.
A lifelong case of wanderlust has left me with a visual scrapbook of sights and sounds, even smells and bits of dialogue which seem to sneak into my work. I don't intentionally set out to recreate a scene and I'm often surprised to see them. It's rarely even a single location but bits and pieces jumbled together. They become blurry postcards and reconstructed maps that help me make sense of the world.
Painting is a very physical process for me, beginning days or weeks before I ever begin. Each step is as integral to the process as the application of paint and mark, including reading and researching, stretching canvases, mixing new colors, searching for new tools and experimenting with methods of working.
Risk and uncertainty are an artist's friend, and I try to keep the painting open to all possibilities, deviations and directions - where it's outcome is not yet known and anything can happen. Taking a wrong turn or unexpected direction is often more productive than getting things right, and getting lost can have surprising outcomes. Working back and forth between organic and architectural elements, patterns and textures, colors, tangles of marks is the process that keeps me engaged and the sense of mystery alive and well.