Inspired by daily life, art history and religious traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Quaker Christianity, my paintings and drawings explore contemplative spiritual experience.  My work begins with the basic design and construction materials of gouache and wood.  Through the economical use of line, color, texture, size and the illusion of light and space, I create a visual dialogue between painted surface and wooden substrate. The resonance of this interaction is at once expansively mysterious and intimately familiar, an experience often associated with moments of contemplative insight. Due to my content aspirations, this work belongs within the American tradition of small- scale non-representational abstraction, with artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin and Richard Tuttle as some of its precedents.

      I believe that experiences of subtle structural beauty can be incredibly valuable.  Because they require quietude during a time of de-humanizing speed, clutter and noise, they serve as both a foil to the frenetic activity of contemporary life and as a method of sustenance within it.

(click for the pdf version of artist statement)

      My sculpture explores various themes within popular culture, including religion, commercialism and mass media. More specifically, I am interested in using common materials such as spandex and neon to create conceptually ambivalent, emotionally evocative artwork that serve as metaphors for these themes as they are experienced in everyday life. Ultimately my hope is that these slightly odd, sometimes beautiful, often humorous spaces encourage viewers to ask questions about the contemporary world and our place in it.

(click for the pdf version of artist statement)