Artist’s Statement

Painting is something I have done since I was 13 years old. With introductions to the work of Duchamp, Picasso and Jasper Johns an art instructor in grade 9 inspired me to see art objects as things that extend beyond the immediate and create worlds of thought. I was enchanted by the idea that a person could create from nothing an object that was intriguing, in a complex way. Its relationship to other art objects, art history and its physical relationship with other naturally occurring objects in nature and man made produces implied meaning and value beyond the physical piece. Equally, the narratives that an art work can compel the viewer to create as they come to terms with the object.

In the 1980’s I produced two types of work, mixed media assemblages of found objects with added painting and abstract paintings best described as expressionist. The mixed media pieces were pleasurable to create but in time I found that the objects and the history that they brought with them from there former use dominated the piece in such a way that it could only be interpreted as the subject. The found objects dictated the composition and created a detatchment between me and the act of creating the object. I was more interested in the whole composition being the subject not an object within the whole. For these reasons I stopped producing mixed media work in the mid 1990’s and concentrated on purely abstract work. I felt that abstract work put demands on me to focus more on colour, composition and mark making which a greater understanding of the paint and it’s possibilities. The blank canvas with no initial starting point (ie. Found object) forced me to create a vocabulary of compositional components that when combined could manifest the painting itself as the subject. I selected colours that I felt would engage the viewer at an intuitive level. Shapes and colour fields would be expressed on the canvas in the same way that we experience light, colour and motion when we interact with our surroundings. The mark making is active and immediate.

Using a range of archetypal colours, the compositions are pulled together resisting literal forms and references. The shapes hint at the known and mimic the intimate. Interest and tension are created using a narrative of colour juxtapositions and a variation in mark making. The details are compelling. Rendered in oils and acrylics, the compositions affirm the brush strokes, knife marks, drips and graphite scribbles.

Stats

Birth date: October 28, 1961
Living in Guelph, Ontario

Works