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"Whether this is the gleam of metal grating, or the dull glow
of an imageless television set, or the refractive surface of water sparkling upward
to meet the downwardly focused view of the spectator, the stabbing beams of
the multiple points of light produce not the beautiful sublimation but the formless
pulsation of desire." 1 The Destiny of the Informe Rosalind E Krauss
My work focuses on the axioms of beauty & time, the uncountable & the countable,
painting & photography, lightness & darkness and the tension between all
these concepts. I am interested in the relationships and interactions these ideas
bring forth. At times they are dichotomous. At other times they intersect and interact.
I work in oil on canvas with an inclination toward Realism & Abstract Expressionism
and an interest in the altered reality that photography can induce. Artists such
as Richard Estes, Malcolm Morley, Gerhard Richter, and Chuck Close are of great
significance to me.
For some reason humans have an innate attraction to beauty. We strive to capture
it, contain it, understand it, and hold it. I try to find beauty in the mundane,
banal, abject, and everyday life. I am interested in analyzing beauty through my
art. If I see beauty, I capture and transform it immediately through the eye of
a camera. I then paint the essence of what I have captured and through my painting
I am able to analyze it using the media of old (oil painting) and new (photography).
In a way, I am creating a handmade reproduction of something that has been produced
mechanically. I like my work to take on the painterly significance of an expressionistic
stroke as exemplified by De Kooning -but at the same time retain realistic and photographic
qualities at a distance; to present the painting as structurally predetermined like
a facade or a two dimensional photograph -flat & frontal by way of photography
but painterly in composition.
I find beauty is often a function of the play of light upon and around it. And because
of that, light is a strong proponent in my work. The13th century English Philosopher
Robert Grosseteste concluded that light is the "first form" (the source
of generation (biology) and motion (physics)) and it occupies a prominent place
in his account of sense perception and the relation of body and soul. "A body
can only be seen if light is shed on it, so something can only be known if spiritual
light is shed on it" 2. Perhaps there lies the attraction: I see
beauty and light as promise -a truth or hope in the darkness. And perhaps as Dave
Hickey said, "... the vernacular of beauty, in its democratic appeal, remains
a potent instrument for change in this civilization"3
"One has to believe in what one is doing; one has to commit
oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries
it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting.
But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it
is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is idiocy." (From Richter,
'Notes 1973', in The Daily Practice of Painting, p.7S.)
1 Rosalind E. Krauss, The Destiny of the Informe
2 Robert Grosseteste, The Metaphysics
of light, htlp:llplato.stanford.edu/entries/grossetestel#Bibs
3 Dave Hickey, Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty
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