Oxygen

I start a painting with no particular idea in mind. I use paint, old book pages, scarred ephemera, mark-making and anything that comes to me in the process. Much of my work involves how fragments of collage elements mirror the landscape in its beauty and fragility. If the surface is smooth, what is underneath? What kind of secrets hide in the layers of paper and paint? What will the painting reveal as I excavate with sandpaper, knives, and tearing? My process is very tactile, physical and the image that emerges is a revelation – a buried treasure.

I have always been obsessed with ruins and decay. Finding a kind of mysterious beauty in the surprises and juxtapositions that occur as I add, subtract and peel away the layers of my paintings.