Artist Statement
Artist Statement
During the last couple of years, the main focus of my work has been concerned with the formal investigation of perception. I am exploring that moment between seeing and comprehending. I want to captivate the viewer with something that may not be understandable or recognizable at first glance but will absorb the viewer’s attention and keep it. In my work, I strive to create an imagery that is at once naturalistic, yet abstract. The imagery is derived by using a process-oriented form of abstraction. The process begins with sketches, observations and photographs of an actual subject. The selection of a subject is based upon its potential to create an image that possesses a visual complexity. Primarily, I focus on elements from nature or some form of complex pattern or design. After careful study of the subject, I scan the sketches and photographs into Photoshop and manipulate them by means of close cropping, dramatic or oblique perspectives, a harsh contrast between figure and ground and bilateral symmetry. The result is a dissolution of the subject into abstract forms suggestive of a variety of visual phenomena. After this process, the image is then printed and used as a guide for my paintings. The overall effect of this technique renders an image that is abstract, yet grounded in reality. Turning the ordinary into the strange or ambiguous; turning the familiar into the unfamiliar.
