"Artist's Statement"

Is it possible for Painting today to be subversive? Is it possible for Painting to challenge accepted conventions of two dimensional media and image? Is it possible to make paintings about process, rather than product? Can a contemporary artist working “abstractly” make objects that avoid sentimentality? Is it possible to explore maximum difference through repetition?

On a more intimate level, I seek to invoke empathy. My paintings and sculpture seek positioning yet lack specific realization in any firm conceptual sense. Therefore, I try to make the work as physically present as possible. If I successfully create an “open” object, the viewer will be nudged into participation.

Essentially, the artist’s statement is defined by a declaration of what is interesting to the artist. The conglomerate of the artist’s interests is a way to see how the artist’s mind works. Each sentence of interest mirrors an aspect revealed in the work. As with my work, I hoped to make my artist’s statement as tangible as possible and steer away from the speculative and hypothetical.

I’m interested in that point where the illusion breaks down.
I’m interested in examining the third dimension of painting and drawing.
I’m interested in not making overtly political statements.
I’m interested in not making work about my personal history.
I’m interested in limiting myself to a self-contained “abstract” vocabulary.
I’m interested in the chemical and physical properties of polyurethane foam.
I’m interested in the freedom found in working under certain conventions.
I’m interested in pushing the viewer into participation through reduction.
I’m interested in the effects of gravity on a painted surface.
I’m interested in paintings that don’t hang straight or that aren’t quite square.
I’m interested in things that might be perfect in another reality,(but in THIS reality are just a little bit off).
I’m interested in what is stark.
I’m interested in editing.
I’m interested in plastic and plastic-like surfaces.
I’m interested in painting from something else besides paint.
I’m interested in stacked books.
I’m interested in deadmalls.com.
I’m interested in how objects alter the space around them.
I’m interested in how space alters the objects it surrounds.
I’m interested in repositioning abstraction.
I’m interested in making questions.
I’m interested in answers that are both true and false.
I’m interested in lying your way to the truth.
I’m interested in the fragility of the art object.
I’m interested in holes is walls that have no purpose.
I’m interested in the theoretical possibility of creating endless compositions.
I’m interested in blue tarps.
I’m interested in wood painted white.
I’m interested in chunks of red wax.
I’m interested in things people can describe as jello-like.
I’m interested in the study of sloppy craft.
I’m interested in the Buddhist Temples of Northern Laos.
I’m interested in capturing fragments.
I’m interested in the dirt image a hung picture leaves on the wall.
I’m interested in joy.
I’m interested in things that are about “nothing”.
I’m interested in the way rice fields look in early spring.
I’m interested in objects you have no name for.
I’m interested in being stuck on the basic problems in putting a support together.
I’m interested in the big, empty space that inhabits the center of my work.