Abstract painting is not modern. More akin to primitive forms of visual expression, it conveys emotions, ideas, objects or events by use of the most elemental marks. For me, this way of making art is not only natural, but also inescapable. It is a thread that connects the distant past, my earliest childhood memories, and the present. It is almost like religious experience, only better- no gods, just the act of creating.
My earliest sensory memories are of urban sights and sounds. They always seemed abstracted to me. The shards of light slicing through my grandmother’s Venetian blinds at night had a distant and mystical feel. Clanging trolley cars had shapes and colors, too, even though I couldn’t actually see them. I am sure that it was these impressions that influenced my attraction to primitive and ancient forms of art.
Now, as an urban “cave” dweller, it is the constant activity and materiality of my surroundings that gives me comfort. The sights and sounds of construction and demolition, the human hand at work, as well as the natural process of decay, inspire me. The process of change, more than finished products, interests me.
I create images that recall, reflect, record and prolong my visual experiences. My paintings are groups of objects with a quality of work in progress. In addition to the more familiar oil paint and wood panel I use homasote, (a recycled paper product with a rough, unfinished surface) and encaustic, (a rich amalgam of beeswax, resin and pigment - durable yet malleable). These are materials that I can carve, scrape, add, subtract, rough up and polish, all part of a process of elemental mark making that helps me realize my intention.
