Artist Statement

Why be an artist? Possibly: to express yourself; to make a social or political statement; to shock; to glorify; to make a fortune (but usually after you’re dead); to party; to piss off your parents; to have an excuse to stay up late; for the social cache; or because you can’t do anything else. I am an artist because I want to know. I want to come to a real and specific understanding of the world while I am still in it. What is the appleness of an apple? What is the essential quality of skin? How blue is the sky in this place on this day? What is the nature of a wave, a splash, a drop?

Science would have been an alternative way of studying, but I’m utterly hopeless at math. So I sit and stare and study what is in front of me because the world is endlessly fascinating. Skin – its lusciousness, its luminescence – is always beautiful. Skin and skies and shadows, all the usual stuff. When you look at a piece of my work, you are seeing the process of the study. I keep at it until I understand and when it works, the essence is there, on canvas.