Artist Statement (or why I make art work)
1. I Draw and Paint what I see, from Observation:
Because I’m naive enough to attempt the impossible.
In order to feed my imagination (except that I can’t prove that).
To offer an insightful, sensual experience that raises the viewer to a new level.
To convey nuance, and force upon myself the patience and understanding that it is revealed incrementally.
To Identify the light remaining in the shadows.
To prove that I actually was somewhere.
To prove that I don’t agree with the camera’s way of seeing things.
To give more more credit to the familiar than to call it ordinary.
2. I Paint what I Imagine:
To bring into being something worthwhile that wasn’t there before.
To create an artificial paradise, a theatrical event, or reveal a hidden trauma, or an anxious fear.
For the pleasure of making a subject re-appear, onto the object that is canvas or paper.
Because I’m challenged by the immense chasm between working from observation and working without it, and I enjoy the challenge.
And because Art conjoins the character of a thing to the character of the artist.
3. I make Sculpture:
So that the wishes of my drawings come true, and to happen upon a complexity that’s unpredictable
Because I’m in love with Structure for the sake of its own limitations.
4. I Write:
To have arguments with myself about values, purpose, aesthetics, human connection, and philosophical inquiry.
But more generally, I make artwork:
Because hand to eye coordination is really hand to brain, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity to exercise spirit.
To convey the energy of a gesture.
To practice the balance - walk the tightrope, between impulse and restraint.
To celebrate cause and effect.
To depict the trance!
And Because:
Of the unprovable assertion that Beauty is the artist’s first moral obligation.
Because there are more life enhancing experiences at a museum than anyone could stand.
And Finally, because the critical ingredient in art is optimism.