Fence
Like a shadow cast or an image reflected on water, my work
involves the transformation of form on a surface. I locate my work
within the tradition of modern American landscape artists and
others like Thomas Nozkowski who have been inspired by nature
and its intersection with culture.
One series, Fence, began with a walk in the woods where I came
across a neglected antique wire fence. I was struck by the
sculptural beauty of the forms that were once so similar and now
are bent and distorted. The fence, that had stood straight and
determined to mark the boundary between one side and another,
sporadically recalls its former shape and purpose. Looking through
the fence, the landscape is, in a sense, annotated for me.
Like many artists, I attempt to represent my subjective
experience. As with the fence, I am affected by change both short
and long term. Working with acrylics on board, I begin work by
seeking and creating pattern as an organizing principle. I am
interested in disrupting and reasserting connections with pattern
and scale. Using a process of building up layers and sanding to
reveal what lies beneath, I am able to burnish the surface and bring
out aspects of buried history or palimpsest.
I am interested in what happens when I let go of borrowed form
and allow it to become altered much like what occurs when we
grow and transform our identities over time.