Artist Statement

In my paintings I attempt to depict the complex subtleties of connection and separateness in our contemporary relationships. At first glance, the carefully rendered objects in my paintings feel real and three-dimensional, but are so implausibly configured as to defy the laws of physics. On further reflection, the forms may be standing in for figures or parts of bodies, evoking balls, bubbles, or even molecules of DNA. The paintings could be viewed as magnifications of the way things work, strange still lives of dancers in mid-motion, or family members struggling for autonomy. The shapes are acrobatic, lifted off the ground, or perched playfully in midair; maintaining the juggling act of trying to hold things together a bit longer before coming apart. These small intimate oil paintings exist somewhere in between biomorphic abstraction and narrative representation. The technical process of layering glazes, scumbling surfaces and developing forms slowly and carefully, is much like the tending of human relationships: organic, fluid, precarious, yet capable of a delicate unpredictable harmony.