ìI believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.
- Henry David Thoreau

Dislocation best describes the condition of the American family. Our "throwaway culture" values individual success and allows the pursuit of happiness to become an obsessive behavior. My attempts to understand this condition can be found in the poetic tension of each piece -between the background and the foreground, the picturesque and the ordinary, optimism (hope) with immobility (tragedy).

I use toys and models to create little catastrophes. My subjects tend to be middle American and common--things like cars, pastoral hillsides and suburban landscapes. Depicting the ordinary in the throes of disaster, I flirt with collective fears and fantasies. I set all action in austere environments, transposing scenarios where catastrophe meets calm. The result is imagery that blurs distinctions between whimsy and drama, familiarity and spectacle, reality and illusion.

The gain and loss of control and the desire to maintain control once it is in possession is the essence of my work. External pressures influenced by our fast-paced, American society and the subsequently induced internal stresses, have been translated into a personal visual form. By filtering this dialogue between these opposing elements through a symbolic and literal system, I find a level of catharsis from the anxiety-laden thoughts that influence my interpretations of control.

These one-frame, two-dimensional tragicomedies capture a moment in the inner world of individuals who are trying hard to make their way through the obstacles of their lives. I intend for the image and text to be full and equal partners in these vignettes of searching.

There is a visible energy within my art that is influenced by spontaneity and choreography, along with the concept of construction and deconstruction. Some marks are reactionary in time, shape, and color while others are analyzed prior to placement. This duality informs the compositions, which are founded on patterns of movement, extension of time, and the development of pattern within a structure.

I have always been drawn to the open-ended nature of landscapes and the multiple perspectives from which it can be viewed and experienced. In my recent body of work I have begun investigating the affect of modern devices on the way in which we interpret the spaces that surround us.

Flea markets and antique stores provide my image bank. Eclectic sources such as old cookbooks, dictionaries, memo books and other forms of printed ephemera suggest and inspire new ideas. I am interested in the different ways the juxtaposition of a variety of these recognizable images can be altered in meaning and narration by new combinations and compositions. I use the computer to scan and manipulate this storehouse of images. This allows me to quickly and easily move items, play with transparency and scale, as well as color.