For as long as I can remember, creativity has been one of the ways I make sense of the world. Drawing, painting and making have always felt less like hobbies and more like a practice of paying attention.
I work primarily in abstract painting and mixed media, using acrylic paint, paper, silk, fabric, collage and gold metal leaf. Geometry shows up again and again in my work. I am drawn to the way a line, grid or simple shape can create structure within an otherwise intuitive space. Geometry gives things a place to land, while organic forms, rough edges, texture and unexpected materials push against that order. I am interested in the point where the structure starts to fail, or where something unruly refuses to fit inside it.
My process is about discovery. I build things up, cover them, scrape them away and begin again. I might follow a particular color, shape or gesture without knowing where it will lead. Eventually there is a moment when the disparate elements begin to find one another and the painting feels like it has discovered its own logic.
I am drawn to memory, antiquity, the sacred and the ways we look for connection, but also to color, play, surprise and joy. Maps, vessels, bits of text and architectural forms sometimes find their way into the work. I love when something feels almost recognizable without becoming completely knowable. I don’t necessarily want to resolve that tension. Sometimes the not knowing is the most interesting part.
The natural world is part of this too. Earth, sky, water, weather and changing light are constant reminders that beauty and uncertainty can exist at the same time.
Community has become increasingly important to my practice. Making happens privately in the studio, but art becomes something different when it goes out into the world. I love the conversations and unexpected connections that happen when people gather around art. I want more of that in my practice.
I don’t make paintings to provide answers. I make them because I am curious about what happens when we pay attention, stay open and let seemingly unrelated things find one another. Sometimes they resolve. Sometimes they don’t. There is room in the work for recognition and mystery, but also wonder, pleasure and the simple joy of looking.
My paintings are held in private collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. I live and work in Longmont, Colorado. Pieces for sale can be see here.