ARTIST STATEMENT

Wood, I have found, is an ideal partner to oil paint.  Because the wood is porous and absorbent, with inherent grain and flaws, it alternately resists and drinks in the oil medium.   This creates the most wonderful and unpredictable effects.  The grain adds depth and texture behind flat blocks of translucent color.  The wood always asserts itself in some way, regardless of the treatment of the image or the density of paint application.  I often leave fields of unaltered wood in the work - a dry, natural section of that provides an interesting contrast to the slick feel of the painted areas.

The use of wood in my work has also allowed me to break out of the flat rectangle.  Independence from the stretched canvas leads me to work with irregular shapes, to cut contours, to introduce multiple surface levels.

Emotionally, works on wood give the feeling of permanence, of weight and solidity, of the painting as object.  My work explores the relationship between this structural, architectural ground, and the organic, plastic qualities of the medium and image.