Artist Statement
Growing up in a nature rich area of New Jersey, the landscape has always been in plain view. I began using the landscape as a tool for the organic environments I create. Landscape is a powerful force that appears uncontrollable to the human grasp but simultaneously this chaos can capture a reflective and meditative state within any soul. The issue of landscape becomes an essential device that reinforces a place or state of mind in my work. I began to re-evaluate landscape in abstract terms and consider landscape in alternative ways. The exterior landscape opposed to the interior landscape, both physically and spiritually, are the foundation my work. Some issues I consider are how in either surrounding does one act, react, or develop themselves. I am concerned with contrasts, harmony, order, and chance. These contrasts challenge the ideas of exposure and vulnerability verses withholding and secrecy. By using the natural landscape, I am searching for a stable foundation within the complexity of the mind and body.

The process by which these paintings are created, have just as much importance as the final outcome. With each layer, each pour, each mark, I am building an environment, a glimpse of a past and present that wants to be revealed and remain hidden. As an artist we all have a choice to what medium we chose to bring carry out our intent. The materials used within my work are a combination of the general, the domestic, and the sensory. How can materials found in our daily lives be used for a dual purpose? Things we are so accustomed to using and seeing, take on a new connotation. How can a material such as shellac remind us of something edible? – when its toxic. Or how can a product such as Epson salt, intended to soothe pain, resemble gravel on the paintings surface, but still anticipate healing.

My work is a by-product of joining the internal and external, questioning our personal developments and envisioning our physical and emotional landscape. With the use of these daily influences, my work aims to investigate the juncture that unifies the physical, emotional and spiritual being. What does the juncture between the internal and external really look or feel like? Is it fragile, bold, rough, or smooth? Is it edible, does it repel, is it familiar? Furthermore, I am asking how the mind and body play an important role in these deciding factors and does our environment play a crucial role in this decision.