2/18/04
Artist Statement
In an attempt to recapture the excitement and joy of art making
I used to experience prior to grad school, I abandoned the formulation
of witty ideas, concepts and high-minded processes. Disregarding
a need to be relevant to my art educational conditioning, or the
world of contemporary art criticism, I was able to liberate my mind
and actions in the studio.
Having released the former burden I was left only with internal
mental space to draw upon for substance. The resulting paintings
become stripped down representations of my emotions. Expressed through
a vocabulary that is both ancient in the context of contemporary
art (a more romantic, narrative, and expressive style of painting)
and current in its figurative code (television screens and videogame-like
characters as stand-ins for human emotions. Think animated movies
giving life to inanimate objects, etc.).
In retrospect, I can find a deep, personal account of my family
relationship and childhood memories imbedded in these paintings.
They appear to me as simultaneously somber, lonely, disconnected,
but also comforting, warm and cherished. An enormous contradiction
that must be my subconscious mind free from fulfilling the duties
of the Art Mantra and lost in the common search of life and understanding
we all share.
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