Statement

My intent is to provoke a sense of wonder so that viewers can more deeply experience hope and curiosity about our world. I work primarily in encaustic, a wax-based painting medium that is tactile and utilizes layers of color and texture.  I have developed a technique that blends the transparency of watercolor and the luminosity and surface aliveness of wax.

In addition to the more common encaustic techniques that use pigmented wax, I build up the images using a subtractive painting process that uses water media suspended on the wax surface.  Because of the slick wax surface, I can add and wipe away pigment, again and again until the image is revealed.  Like fingerpainting, the brushstrokes, scratching, pooling and dripping of the pigment are all left behind, documenting the history of my painting process.

Swinside Circle, 12" x 36"

Mounds and Stones

Mounds and Stones is a series of impressionistic images of ancient sacred sites, specifically in Scotland and England. For about 40 years, I watched my father study how the planets and stars are connected to the meaning and use of these monuments. When I was a teenager, we took a trip to Ireland, England and Scotland and searched out all the Neolithic earthworks, mounds, and stone circles we could find, no matter if they were across a muddy and cow filled field.  Though I was a surly 17 year old, I never forgot the feeling of walking among those stones and mounds. The stones were like groups of people meeting together and the mounds like large mammals hibernating.

When I began the series, all I knew was that I wanted to paint these images, wanted to see what my father saw and remember our time together. But as I painted, I started to reclaim those sites as mine, despite the fact that it has been many generations since my ancestors lived there.  This was a big step since I have mostly felt embarrassment about having ancestors who no doubt participated in the colonization of North America and profited from enslaving Africans.  But there was something so powerful and beautiful about them that I was drawn in nonetheless.

These ancient sites, and those like them all over the world, remain a source of pride for the people who live nearby. I want to invite the viewers to take pride in the land and people they came from. Where are you most connected? Who are your people? What would it mean to reclaim your background and love the land you came from or live on now?

Sitting Peaches, 17" x 12"

Fruit Portraits

Fruit has long been a popular subject for painters over the centuries, for good reason. They are beautiful, varied, and filled with meaning. The Fruit Portraits was inspired in particular by the elegant and exact botanical illustrations by 19^th Century artists. Those drawings and paintings showed the important elements of each plant: flower, fruit, leaf, and stem. I want to show the symbolic elements of fruit as well as the physical shapes. I am also seeking to discover the uniqueness of each fruit. The central composition, along with the curved corners, creates a formal and sacred tone. Like in the botanical illustrations, my fruit images often float in the air rather than sit as in a still life

The plein air oil paintings are a blend of conceptual and physical. You arrive at the place at a certain time, ready to receive what is there. It is impossible to control everything. There is only that moment, that vista, that collection of colors, even if you try and return at the same time of day. The sun beating down on your neck and back, the insects that buzz around your head and land in your paint, the dust and sand that blows onto your wet painting or the sudden gust that flips it face down in the dust.

The Columbia Slough project is about finding landscapes within the city. This slow moving creek hidden behind industrial Portland is not easily accessible. Over the new few years, I will be locating access points and painting plein air scenes of the slough. I will be getting to know it and the people who fish, kayak and canoe in it.