I am a multidisciplinary artist with diverse experience and many associated interests. I yearn to learn about all the ways that art is made, because art is certainly not just the creation of an object to be contemplated but the sum of all the actions, thoughts, inspirations, time and effort that it took to create it. Process is as much art as it is its product.
My notion of process is not limited to only the physical creation of a print, painting or a sculpture. It is the way I think about the thing I am creating or about to create. I have been a manual image maker (drawer/painter) since the age of 18 months and it has been my primary form of expression ever since. It also serves as a way of thinking things through and resolving all manner of mysteries, personal and eternal.
Each painting is document of whatever I was contemplating at the time, imbued with symbols and signs that recur throughout my work consistently. I call this my image vocabulary. Faces, figures, eyes, trees and animals feature prominently in my work.
I typically start with a figure whose silhouetted gesture I’ve seen already appear in my mind and in the shadow of my canvas’es crease. As I start to paint her features and establish her position, other images begin to appear in her arms and her face may become a flower and then animals may start to appear. These images are not random - they all have a meaning. They are a part of my visual vocabulary, but their meaning represents concepts more than literal representations. There are images that have appeared in my work since childhood that I am only now figuring out some of their meanings. The way I paint is akin to scrying, an ancient way of divination where one interprets images that appear in the reflections on mirrors or water. In this case I paint the images as I see them, with watercolor, and I decipher their personal meanings as they emerge. Some images stand out while others blend into and form multitudes of images. Some I only see until later. Questions and answers all mix together in one very complex unsolvable rebus.
While for most, painting is practiced in a studio and is considered a largely solitary pursuit, I have been painting regularly as a performer at various underground parties since 2010 in a practice that has become known to many as “live painting”. I, often along with a gallery of other artists, paint as hundreds revel in elaborate and surreal environments while various forms of electronic dance music thump and bump deep into the night. Each party has its theme and its own unique feeling and vibe. When painting in public, it is that energy and environment that inspires what I paint that night. Instead of dancing, I respond to the environment in a visceral and physical way through my painting process. I paint in time to the music, and with brushes in both hands, I “drum” the colors onto my now vibrating canvas. The beat and tempo of the music influences the beat and tempo of my brush work. The texture and melody of the music affects the texture and color of the paint. The resulting painting becomes, in a real sense, a document of my experience of the night. Many times, I continue to develop the painting after the event, allowing my recollections and feelings about the experience to influence the painting.
Through this unique experience of live painting I have become more profoundly influenced by music and this has fundamentally changed the way I paint, fomenting numerous personal revelations about color theory, technique and my overall process.