“New Work”
For exhibition at MPG Contemporary, Boston, MA, April, 2007.
These are paintings of observations of the world. I choose to paint people, places, and things that are meaningful to me. But the meaning doesn’t necessarily materialize in concrete words and instead the beginning of the painting is based instead on a feeling that I apprehended something resonant. I try to trust that sensation since it is somewhat rare.
The subject of the paintings is determined based on those moments of clarity, and I try to pay no attention to whether the subject matter is worthwhile, only whether it resonates. And then the painting begins. I believe that a painting can communicate experience in ways that other mediums can’t. Paintings, and in my view, painters, have a responsibility to make the surface -- the brushstrokes and color -- an inherent part of the interest and meaning of the work. Once the subject matter and emotional connection is established, formal considerations take over: composition, form, space, and most importantly, color, which has to work above all else. Color is at the service of light, which is what for me provides the emotional connection to the thing seen. I believe that to paint representationally, I have to do more than represent, since photographs do that well. The experience has to be distilled, transformed, and re-emerge in its purist possible form.
If I have any success, the initial chord that quietly resonated from the observed moment will be struck for the viewer. And knowing that someone else has experienced some piece of my original apprehension is deeply rewarding for me when it happens. It is usually a struggle to achieve.