ELEMENT
My artwork is free-ranging, but has always concerned itself with the elements that I come in contact with in the course of my daily life. I think of it all as "up-close', in a sense, because that is my experience in both seeing and making it. My photos are all taken with my phone camara, because it is always with me. My drawings are made of the scene I see in front of me, whether while I am teaching, drawing friends, sitting on the porch, or wondering around. The mixed-media pieces are meant as combinations of different elements-sometimes a wood-rubbing on top of a newspaper photo, with ink and colored-pencil added, where I feel the urge. Where there is an element of the past in my work, it is meant to be summoned like a dream that you might have just had last night, or the past of a long walk that brings you to this precise moment. I don't formally make a distinction between my more-or-less realistic work because I believe that all of it is at once abstract, just in being an image on paper or wood, and at the same time refers to elements very much a part of my intimate everyday life, which both connects and separates me from others. There is a strong element of desire in all this work--desire to touch, be part of, not forget, and also a desire to abandon myself to my observations and my materials. I also love the idea of art as a form of offering-up, a way to join in the communal experience of being human, with all the wonder attached to that experience.
