Artist Statement

At quick glance, my paintings and pastels seem familiar, simple and nice. A second glance reveals an underlying imaginary and surrealistic world. The visual accuracy of each scene is juxtaposed against the personification of inanimate objects - so flowers can be angry, chairs’ kind, houses’ emotionally unavailable. This psychological tension draws the viewer in for a lingering… deeper… second look.

My ideas are inspired by visual cues gathered when I’m out walking, perusing design magazines, wandering through galleries and museums, as well as a host of seemingly unlikely places. Like most artists, I want my work to generate an emotional response in viewers. I hope that they can see my sense of humor as well as my darker thoughts. While the image might be of a flower, house, or chair, the compositions really have to do with caretaking, nesting, self-image and more universal concerns.

I work on several pieces at a time. My work takes a lot of time to execute and I can’t rush the finished piece. A similar color palette runs through both my paintings and pastels. I add thin layers of paint as well as remove paint when it’s wet, to achieve a feeling of depth and texture. I enjoy working on both large and small canvases.

My goal as an artist is to take more chances with my work and to continue to explore my identity in those images.