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These four pieces are part of
a larger series being created
for my senior capstone. Although
other aspects of my life are very
green, art is my guilty pleasure.
The one thing I do to help the
impact of my art is leaving my
paintings frameless, even though
wood is a renewable resource.
Maybe the temperature of our hearts
is inversely proportional to the
temperature of our climate. As
keepers of the earth, we humans
have done a lousy job of playing
caretaker to its natural cycles.
This large misuse of our environment
and a much smaller (but growing)
attempt at recovery is what my
paintings represent. Ellipses,
both organic and cellular, show
the essence of life and nature
at its most basic level. All of
nature is a self-rejuvenating
circle-or should be. The differing
sizes and movement from painting
to painting show the natural ebb
and flow of life, the circles
of death and re-growth.
Contemporary abstract artists
such as Terry Winters, Pat Steir,
Sarah Lutz and Janaina Tschape
have strongly inspired my paintings
through their own pieces. Creating
art that concerns the environment
allows me to mix painting with
the issues I care about most.
Nature is the best piece of art
I have ever seen. From grapevines
and bubbles to rain and microscopic
tissues, I am influenced and inspired
by the patterns, luminosity, colors
and shadows of our planet. Seeing
the abuse such beauty is enduring
makes me yearn to instill people
with the same awe and respect
I hold for nature. Working in
oils lets me layer structures
and color. I urge people to think
in spite of the aesthetically
pleasing and to mentally work
through their initial repulsion
from the unaesthetic. If one sees
and feels my hope for change struggling
through the busy movement and
my sometimes unsettling color
choices, and better yet, becomes
personally involved, maybe I’ve
accomplished something worthwhile.
"They are imbeciles who call
my work abstract;
that which they call abstract
is the most realist,
because ¬what is real is not
the exterior form
but the idea, the essence of things."
– Constantin Brancusi
