Artist Statement

My current work depicts wonderous occurrences both real and imagined in a simplified style using air and hand-brushed ink on paper. Borrowing elements from petroglyphs, hieroglyphs, and yes, cartoons, these paintings depict humans, animals, and other creatures coming together in stylized moments that are often more complex than initially supposed. By reducing the image to basic forms and colors, excess detail is removed to reveal motifs of life, birth, death, and redemption. Though themes vary – from historical narratives, re-imaginings of the Old West, folkloric passages, and depictions of legend or ritual – these images show a common desire to interact with something beyond the everyday experience. On a more superficial level, the simple shapes and colors create visual puzzles that riff on elements of symmetry and asymmetry, space and substance. In many of these pieces the design itself becomes as important as the subject, and occasionally supersedes it entirely. These forms and colors further speak to our innate understanding of the visual world as well as the inconsistencies and mysteries that it contains.