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Bio:
I was born (1969)and raised in Philadelphia,
PA. I attended Moore College of Art and Design (Philadelphia), after
many summers and weekends studying painting and drawing at their
intensive pre-college classes. Moore's painting department
emphasized painterly figurative realism. Before my senior year I was
awarded a scholarship to a 3 week residency at Vermont Studio
Colony. After earning my BFA in 1991, I worked as a part time art
teacher for an after school program in West Philadelphia. I taught
painting, animation, jewelry design, textile design, and pottery.
During this time I continued to paint in an artist's studio building
in North Philadelphia, and limited my exhibitions to open house
shows, and private parties.In 1995 I moved to Chicago, Illinois,
and provided art and pre-literacy activities to preschoolers. After
a year, I visited my brother in Austin, and fell in love with the
town. I moved to Texas in 1996. In Austin I continued to
create small works of art that a small budget and limited space
could provide. In 1999, I made a commitment to develop a
larger body of work, (in scale and in depth,) and to publicly
exhibit it. I moved into my own apartment, converted the bedroom
into a studio, (which has taken over the rest of the apartment over
the years). I also took a flexible job as a Photoshop technician,
which allows me to put more time into my painting. I have exhibited
in galleries in and around Austin. An upcoming project I am excited
to do is creating 6 life size portraits of various people to be
displayed at the Driscoll Hotel windows, facing 6th Street) next
June. I am looking forward to opportunities to show nationally and
abroad.
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Artist Statement:
In conversation, in criticism, there is an
ongoing debate whether painting is still a relevant medium today.
Also, subject matter that addresses anything less than mass concerns
and interests, whether it be (ironic or embracing) pop inspired, or
social/political influenced art is questioned if it is merely quaint
but trite decoration, or an exercise in self indulgence. I am a
painter. I record my surroundings, my "dreamscapes"
(stream-of-consciousness imagery that grows out of the initial
ground on the the painting's surface), my friends, and my being.
Despite all the TV I watch, the magazines I pour over, the internet
I surf, the movies I attend, my paintings reflect my first and
immediate world. It is small but mine, therefore significant. Using
paint is a natural medium to convey the intimacy in my work.
We are
aware in this age that ideas, entertainment, and art can be quickly
created, mass produced and distributed, heralded, ridiculed,
disposed of, and replaced. (For many of us this mirrors our
relationships with others. Transitory feelings of love and caring
are prematurely announced, vows are taken lightly and with haste,
promises are broken, alliances switch. Loath to be bound to
isolation, or expectations from others, we maintain a state of
anxiety or frenetic busyness in our closest relationships as an ever
present escape route.) The two way relationship between the painter
creating an ongoing body of work, and the viewer who is willing to
contemplate that work becomes a much needed act of intimacy in art.
Machine-like application of paint, that flatly submits to pop
imagery is not the type of painting I refer to. I write of the kind
of painting that is married to the properties of the medium: painter
to surface distilling time, light, and motion into strokes, glazes,
and impasto chunks of color.
The painter, whether working from
observation, or a more internal source, is open to possibilities,
and watches where the painting wants to go. This requires riding out
difficult periods when there seems to be no solution to a stuck
passage, the willingness to keep working when it feels like dutiful
plodding, and staying grounded when in the mania of a breakthrough.
In other words, it takes commitment to create and grow a body of
work.
Self portraits are a main feature (although certainly
not the limit) of my body of work. I am drawn to the figure in
painting, as we all have some immediate psychological response to
human representation, no matter where our tastes run in art. I also
like to work from observation, as it richly informs the color,
light, form, etc. in my compositions. (It also gives me fresh
imagery to draw upon when working on dreamscape paintings.) The
choice to do self portrait work is a decision both of being
resourceful (having 24-7 free access to a ever present model) and an
extension of a life that has been increasingly solitary. It is
an honest basis of subject matter in painting, as perceiving the
world starts with the most personal environment, and grows out from
there. Max Beckman, Kathe Kollwitz, and Frida Kahlo come to mind as
artists who grew to address universal themes of beauty, love, pain,
loss, sex, and conflict filtered through self representation. I am
observant in my world, and it is relevant. I am committed to sharing
it with those who care to see.
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