During the commute from home to work, most commuters do not see the drama unfolding on the stage of the land, where man and nature coexist so tenuously they cannot keep up with each other. My work is a narrative of how this drama unfolds.
The subtle changes day to day of light and atmosphere result in uniquely dynamic images with vast ranges of color & form. Massive, geometric, man-made facilities rest ominously in the midst of peaceful vistas. These structures rest within the gradient of city to suburb providing our most basic human needs: air, water, electricity, and heat. Our natural needs are met by unnatural constructions, which given their placement in the land, most people do not notice, nor care to. Their presence & function is assumed and relied on, yet the sight of them is ignored. Their appearance is displeasing, and to many, a scar on the horizon with which we would rather not be faced.
Powerful images are seen in places we do not wish to see. Beginning three years ago, I used the tension of dark scenes containing only one or two vehicles in interior settings usually ignored by the average viewer: parking garages, parking lots and the like. The vehicles were anthropomorphized in their context, indicating a subtle narrative; an interaction between them that had either just ended or was yet to begin. The work studied man’s relationship with his fellow man. Thusly, viewers were forced to examine their relationships with each other. Often viewers would say they knew how the car “felt” and were surprised by this alien empathy. My compositions were intentionally simple, so the vehicles alone would be the heroes of the painting, the main characters on the stage.
On a formal level, my new work is consistent with this aesthetic approach: use a simple composition with the focus on a central subject in a setting unseen by many to communicate the relationship of man to nature.
Recently, we have become more aware of this relationship on a global level. This new lens through which we see our land will add to the understanding of my work. We seek to improve our understanding of the land, and my work will study how this adaptation unfolds.