07.30.07
Do you begin with an image, a shape, a relationship, a ...?
It varies between thought-out compositional ideas and more open ideas: movement, gravity, space, color.
Are the shapes codified?
They’re codified through repetition maybe, but not in a systematic way. The openness or generalness, but also the specificity, of the forms allows them to be able to play more, and even contradictory, roles depending on the internal relationships of the painting.
Do you consider your paintings to be abstract or representational, if highly reductive?
The paintings are both abstract and representational to a certain degree, depending on spatial relationships and pictorial hierarchy, on how the painting asserts itself or doesn’t. The formal aspects of my work come from both traditions. I want my paintings to have a figurative presence, not in terms of representation, but in terms of object-ness. So it’s really using both ideas at the same time. The forms and colors come from perception—not abstracted from nature, but referencing it and trying to get at fundamentals of experience through a pictorially derived language. These are paintings, not pictures of ideas.
Why is your palette so limited and specific?
Color can function in a purely visual and symbolic/referential way. I reduce palette, form and composition in order to expand my range of sensitivity to the painting. With reduction, the smallest difference in a color, form, or whatever is very dramatic. I can really see the action and figure out what resonates with me.
These paintings feel like they could be sections excerpted from some larger ongoing event that contains more of the same—is that your intent?Related to that, there seems to me to be a snapshot quality to the paintings, as if they represented a casual situation frozen in time. Do you have any or much experience with photography?
I would like to paint in the same way one would tend a garden, creating an environment in the studio where things can grow. I try to make painting decisions based on that kind of model, which I think carries over visually in terms of how the paintings relate to each other and how they feel. The influence of other experiences, music, and art is just another part of the environment that the paintings develop in. So I definitely see the paintings as from a particular time, and influenced by its conditions, and in that sense they are like snapshots. I don’t have much experience with photography.
Have you any intention of painting larger?
I have thought about painting larger. With my current setup, the biggest I can go is four by five feet. The larger I paint, the more minimal the images seem to become. For something 10 feet high, I can’t imagine what would feel right or what kinds of techniques I would use. I’ve worked commercially on large-scale theatrical backdrops, and the techniques and attitudes toward painting were very different from how I work, but not without their appeal.
Name some of your favorite historical artists.
Marsden Hartley, Philip Guston, Joan Miró.
What contemporary artists inspire you?
Thomas Nozkowski, John Walker, Tim Berne.