The work I make is a visual record of my human attempt to understand the universe. Philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of reality and impermanence play a key role in all that I create. I am intrigued by the unseen and subterranean and what happens at the subatomic level. The natural world, specifically the plant world, is a constant source of inspiration for my work. It teaches me about balance, seasonality, courage and endurance, and the interdependence of all things.

 

Psychic Garden 2022

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I am inspired by the Chinese philosophical concept which understands nature as a self-generating, complex arrangement of elements that are continuously changing and interacting. It describes how contrary forces may be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a fundamental disorder of material energy, arranged into the cycles of Yin and Yang. These cycles create a state of balance by their mutual interaction and restriction. These principles manifest in all forms of change and difference such as the annual winter and summer cycle,  day and night, and the north and south poles of the earth. Yin and Yang constantly interact and move from one principle to the other, generating the rhythm of nature and endless change.

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I am currently creating two seemingly disparate bodies of work, but that actually represent this yin and yang, the intrinsic nature of non-duality in seemingly dualistic processes. The energetic and boldly colored pieces that I create are inspired by yang energy, experienced, for example, in nature during the spring and summer seasons. On the contrary, the dense, black botanical works are inspired by the yin aspect of nature, witnessed in the fall and winter with the die off and slumber of the plant world, containing its own beauty in its dormancy.

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Cyanotype plays an important role as the physical backdrop to and metaphorical content of my work. I source local materials from nature to create contact print photographs that serve as a direct marker of place in time.  A diverse range of media is poured and added to the cyanotypes to create multiple layers of imagery. Gravity is often allowed to do the work, trusting the paint to forge its own way into a form more authentic than I could control with my hands. 

 

The final paintings in their full realization are an attempt to illustrate balance through seemingly contradictory processes: the juxtaposition of a controlled, precise moment in time (the cyanotype), with a painting process that is non-linear and layered over many painting sessions. As the paints are poured, they flow and blend, react or crack, and make marks on their own, often serving as an illustration of the microcosmic and macrocosmic vision of the universe.  The monochromatic black botanical pieces render both object and shadow as one, blurring the boundaries and perception of the two as unique to one another. They function as the "Yin" to the spontaneous, layered, "Yang" works. The ultimate hope for all of the work is to serve as a witness to and teacher of the essence of reality.