STATEMENT

        I liken my work to that of the Romantic poets. I feel a strong connection with the aesthetic of the imagery and ideas that their poetry evokes. They wrote of the awe-inspiring power of nature, its sublime beauty, and its affects and connections with human consciousness. From Coleridge’s albatross to Wordsworth’s leech gather, the Romantic poets used seemingly simple subjects to speak of complex issues of emotion, self-reflection, and morality. By using common scenery and characters of a primitive and natural world, coupled with a straightforward, simple language, the Romantics were able to communicate with a broad non-elitist audience. Coleridge wrote of Wordsworth, “his object [was] to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us.” Like Wordsworth, I try to work with a common language that appeals to a wide audience and to use nature as a universal, enlightening subject. An issue, however, is that nature is not really a common subject anymore, and in an age of technology and information, there is a loss of authentic experience that comes from being in the wild. The natural is now often more artificial to many than is the man-made. So while I try to make artwork that reflects the Romantics’ appreciation for nature, I am forced to also include ideas that come from a new dislocated perspective on the natural realm.


        Although I work within a visual language, I try to create a sense of poetry in describing the abstract thoughts and often conflicting emotions arising from my personal, as well as, the general population’s relationship with nature. The complexity of contrast and simultaneous occurrence is something that I try to capture in my artwork. I like for my art to have the potential for evoking conflicting emotions from the viewer. Like nature, an artwork can create its own dynamic by playing off of self-contained contradictions. Some opposing pairs that are reoccurring themes in my work and in nature are growth and decay, tranquility and disruption, and innocence and malice. When a piece of art can simultaneously exist as both beautiful and haunting or humorous and sad, it possesses a duality that adds to its mystique and full experience. It becomes supernatural and begins to enter a sublime realm, like that of nature.


        My activities and experiences in the outdoors have strengthened my relationship with nature and also my respect and concern for it. I am amazed how man, as part of and all encompassing nature, has managed to dislocate it. We have done this both physically and perceptively. Just as our constructions actually interrupt the flow of nature, our concepts of what’s real and artificial are so skewed that they have also staggered nature’s path. So who is in control? I don’t know. Nature tells us time and time again of its strength and resilience, yet I still fear for it. It has a delicacy and ferocity that is only matched by is biggest opponent and partner, mankind. Nature’s actions occur as a result of physical forces, while man’s actions come from a conscious framework. This difference is why, despite its own destructive potentials, I tend to favor the innocence of nature in my emotions and in my art.