In my work, I am interested in generating an impromptu reaction to an idea, thought, or experience. I have always been attracted to art that comes from discounted sources. I take basic ideas, simple plans, and rigorous daydreaming to an extreme in the work, always attempting to elevate my ideas and observations. Experimentation with materials and process is key to much of the work I make, whether it be single-line drawings, mixed-media paintings, or simplified sculpture. In my work nontraditional and traditional approaches to painting sit side by side, craft and hobby

My Submersion Paintings examine the scientific properties of painting. They are the result of a refined process that combines washes, staining, and the application of gesso. Their saturated coloration results from the use of synthetic pigments with chemical names such as Pthalocyanine and Quinacridone. Despite their gestural nature and deep coloring (qualities commonly associated with emotion and expression), the Submersion paintings are based in a removed analysis and distanced, procedural approach. Their glowing forms parallel the universal experience of life mediated

In my work I create highly stylized versions of nature, painting patterns visible in the natural world using pastel hues and poplike paint-by-number repetition. Inspired by subjects ranging from battlefields, war propaganda, literature, and idyllic gardens, I use the landscape as impression, abstraction, symbol, and sentiment. Each painting makes a fantastical analogy between an actual place and the myths and remnants of the real events associated with that place.

In our everyday lives, there are times when we are gripped with a whole-body pleasure, a spine-thrill of delight, when time seems to slow and we are hyper-present. I am trying to understand what it is about these extraordinary experiences in real life, moments in stories or movies that move me so: the way Elwood P. Dowd says “And the evening wore on” in Harvey . . .the recording of my father’s voice telling “The Story of the Rose” . . . the way the light falls on my little girl’s hair . . . All these moments have the impact of something pure and raw. Since 2002, my paintings have focused

Building a new body of work begins with pulling in thoughts and ideas and trying them out to see if they'll go anywhere. For months, I started and stopped, sanded and scraped, ultimately rejecting all efforts as false beginnings. Identity of self and content negotiated for placement in the paintings. A chronic problem with over thinking consistently tried to reassert itself. Overt visual inspirations included a piece of vintage pottery, flowers drawn from a kitschy gift book, and many evenings of watching the varying pinks and receding purples of backyard sunsets.

The aim of the work is to seduce and give pleasure through imagery that is social and accessible. To suspend the viewer's interaction with the work, I deploy "hooks" such as graphic imagery and lurid color to create an overflowing, lascivious world of flowering, fluid fragments that are theatrical and explore many possible genders and sexual situations. Pink is used as a color of identification, which is descriptive of all of our internal bodies. Its feminine connotations are embraced and simultaneously upended to create aggressive images.

My experience is my production. As a recent homeowner and dedicated do-it-yourselfer, I have been teaching myself yard work. Watering, mowing and weeding and countless other chores devoted to the garden have become my plight, or rather inspiration for subject matter. Vast stretches of dirt have been made green again. Very little of this has to do with nature. Friends and neighbors alike vie for the trophy lawn, participating in a turf war over curb appeal. Nature has become objectified; the backyard a modern day fetish.