Artist Statement
My paintings address contemporary landscape from a primary concern with paint and its independent potential. They are large, the paint poured and dribbled onto surfaces. Specific sites or subjects serve as a starting point that alters and restructures itself as paint accumulates. Successive layers of color structure line over line until an image begins to actualize. I see the work as a process in which the paint and its flow inform the artist, demanding a series of colors and gestures that sculpt the painting. In similar fashion, the three dimensional work is the result of requisites imposed on the artist by the material and its inherent attitude. The turn of a natural branch, the grain and twists in wood can’t be ignored, suggesting alternatives that influence the final anatomy of every piece. A lot of this remains outside of the artist’s conscious control. Much of it could be termed accident, recognized and retained.
This whole process builds on the brain’s inherent nature to create figurative imagery from suggestive form and tone. Although some schools of psychiatry maintain that there is no such thing as accident, motion, rhythm and “accident” do appear to create connections between color, line and the subconscious.
In the same way, my sculptures generate themselves largely from the direction orchestrated by the natural materials themselves. The final structure is the consequence of the combined efforts by the unique form provided through nature and my attempts to “steer” them.
Seen up close the paintings might seem informed by the gesture and technique of Jackson Pollack but given some distance, they materialize, conveying a stillness and equanimity similar to William Bailey”s work. And they sometimes hint at the kind of light and atmosphere found with Russell Chatham’s paintings. There is a three dimensionality to the surface that is the outcome of extensive overlaying of the paint.
Compositionally, the paintings relate to early Dutch landscapes not unlike Gerhard Richter’s work. There is a frontality and vertical-horizontal plainness to them, complicated by form and color similar to William Bailey’s still lifes.
I see a fundamental significance to painting, as it relates with its own laws, to portraying nature. Freed from its obligation to be representational, painting landscapes seems anachronistic. Today representational painting is tolerated, if not forgiven. But William Bailey’s incessant representation of bowls, bottles and vessels of all sorts doesn’t seem to be about that subject matter anymore than my paintings are specifically about trees, ponds or cows. The objects or landscapes pictured become vehicles providing a means for paint to reveal itself on its own terms. The subject matter becomes more about atmosphere and mood, structured through the rhythm of paint, just as the sculpture finds calm and humor in the inherent nature and gesture of the material.
Education
Parsons School of Design. BFA (1978)
Yale University. MFA (1980)
SUNY Buffalo. MD (1986)
Awards
Bernard and Sophie B. Gotlieb Award for artistic Achievement (1986)
Rebecca Taylor Porter Prize (1980)
Ford Foundation Grant (1981)
Fanny B. Pardu Prize (1980)
Representation
Fourcade – Droll Gallery, new York, New York (1979 – 1986)
Xavier Fourcade (1986)
Yoiks Gallery, Cockeysville, M.D – Curator Michael Finney (2012 – 2017)
Catalyst Contemporary Gallery.523 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Md. September 2020 – present
Exhibitions:
Outdoor Installation. Davenport Colledge. Yale University. new Haven Ct. March – May 1978
Outdoor Installation. Sculpture. Beineke Plaza, New Haven Ct. APRIL – June. 1979
Painting Exhibition. Yoiks Gallery. Cockeysville Md. September – October, 2017
Painting Exhibition. Yoiks Gallery. Cockeysville, Md. September – October, 2018
Painting Exhibition. Yoiks Gallery. Cockeysville, Md. Vicennial Exhibition. November, 2019
Maryland Federation of Art. Paintings exhibited. Curve Gallery. November – December 2019. Awarded Honorable Mention.
Maryland Federation of Art. Painting Exhibited. Circle Gallery. Winter Member Show. January 4 – January 25.
Maryland Federation of Art. Painting exhibited. Spring Show. May 6 – May 30.
Maryland Federation of Art. Painting exhibited. Strokes of Genius Show. October30 – November25, 2020.
Catalyst Contemporary Gallery. Solo Exhibition. Paintings and Sculpture. September17 – October 31, 2020.
Ladew Gardens Represented Artists Show. Paintings and sculpture exhibited. October 16 – October 31, 2020.
Catalyst Contemporary Gallery. Solo Exhibition. Paintings. September 15 – October 12. 2021.
Light and Shadow. Maryland Federation of Art. Annapolis Md. MFA Curve Gallery. Dec 15 – Jan 31. 2022 -2023.
Maryland Federation of Art . 2023 Fall Member Show. MFA Circle Gallery. Sept. 27 – Oct. 14 2023.
Maryland Federation of Art. Elemental 2023. MFA Curve Gallery. Aug 15 – Sept. 30, 2023.
Maryland Federation of Art. MFA Circle Gallery, Strokes of Genius. Oct 25 – Nov 25. 2023.
Maryland Federation of Art . Reflections. MFA Circle Gallery. 18 State Circle. Annapolis, Md. March 27 -April 27. 2024.
