Since 2017 there has been a dramatic shift in how I approach my work. Consciously, and with a sense of necessity, this shift reflects both the tumultuousness and uncertainty of world affairs as well as recent personal losses. Now, without restrictions to a particular subject, I move freely between the figure, floral arrangements, and abstraction. I embrace the unpredictable and no longer feel the necessity to follow a specific color palette, paint application or prescribed narrative as I had in the past. The work is done intuitively and with urgency. These parameters are set up to enable me to work as quickly as possible so that the initial impulse is not overly analyzed or questioned. The speed and immediacy of working this way is essential regardless of a painting’s subject matter, content or technique. The following quote from the painter Philip Guston continues to provide inspiration: “The worst thing in the world is to make judgments. What I always try to do is to eliminate, as much as possible, the time span between thinking and doing. The ideal is to think and do at the same second, the same split second.” I often work on the floor using paint-filled squeeze bottles to hasten the immediacy of the painting process, leaving less time for questioning. My desire is completely to accept the will of the subconscious while working expediently as a way to question the burden of art history and the existential weight of the current political climate.
2019