Artist Statement

In the moment of making art I can be what I wish I was: fearless, reckless, insuppressible.  My art is partially informed by my career restoring antique objects and furniture.  Restoring is painstaking work, focusing on the smallest of details. I am both nodding to and protesting against the patience and precision required to be a responsible restorer.  The concept of restoration permeates my work - sometimes intentionally sometimes not. I have a mental library - complex layers of history, incident, damage, resurrection - from which I am always borrowing.
Sculptural patterns emerge, not necessarily in texture but in the processes- glazing, building, burning, reducing.  I explore color and the way it changes with every action it receives.  With a stroke, a glaze, a polish, a wax, an abrasion- a new color emerges full of its own story and implications. 

I have a deep affection for industrial, urban settings.  I spend time observing small details, changing surfaces and environments.  Sidewalks.  Puddles.  Pigeons.  Trucks.  Train tracks.  Scrap metal yards.  I think about labor.  Industry.  Production.  Insistence.  The fortitude it takes to persist at something until it is finished. I consider a sea of nameless faceless laborers and artisans that built this city we walk around in, all its wonderment and gritty aesthetic.  There are paintings everywhere.  I just try to capture their essence.