In this group of paintings, I am working with landscape to explore new ways of representing space and form. I am also interested in using psychological content and color to investigate the impact of nature, and natural space on the mind. Individual works describe scenes that are sometimes bright, lush and flowering, or sometimes dissonant, murky and foreboding. Tree branches twist and writhe, color turns acidic, and sky flattens to meet form and then deepens back into space again. A shifting psychological mood pervades the group as a whole, moving between realms of magical fantasy, sparkling beauty, anxiety, and the sinister and mysterious.
I am interested in exploring the in-between states of painting - between
flat shape and deep space, between abstraction and realism, between invented
color and observed color, between chaos and harmony. These moments all
come together to form a shifting landscape space where emotion and thought
can mix with formal invention to create a new and surprising natural and
mental world.
In addition to my painted body of work, I also am working with a mechanical
pencil on paper to create a separate group of works that specifically
explores indiosyncracies and sculptural qualities of natural form. Subjects
include a forest fire charred landscape in Montana, as well as a park
of Planar Sycamore trees in downtown Brooklyn. Through these works I also
hope to investigate themes of gravitas, silence, and the grotesque / beautiful
in nature.
June 2006 | Pencil on paper | 20" x 16"
|
|
|
|
