What is truth? This is the Zen Koan I live with in my studio. There are no words to answer that question, but having the koan in mind keeps me focused on art that comes from who I am without regards to what other artists are doing, what I might think galleries want, or what I think might sell. There is an energy that comes from somewhere and expresses itself through this body and mind and it is up to me to stay true to that flow as much as possible.
I am allergic to oil paint which would be my first choice of media, so I work mainly with acrylics, watercolor and pencils. When I feel moved to tackle a subject matter I then decide what media I think would work best to achieve the best results. Sometimes I begin in one media and then start over in another. Sometimes I mix them. Media is only important in the context of getting across what it is I wish to express and not something I totally focus on in order to achieve a certain level of expertise.
Most of my ideas come from something I have seen in life, but I can also be inspired by a photograph (mine or someone else’s) or another artist’s work. I am not out to copy a photo or another artist’s work, but to be inspired by it in order to take the expression in a new or different direction that is original. In other words, I expand it.
I work in an non linear fashion. Sometimes leaping from one style and concept to another very quickly, but when all of my work is seen together it is reveals several distinct bodies of work. I like to reveal the abstract in realism and realism in the abstract, by finding subject matter that isn’t necessarily something you would see in traditional realism, but is in fact something everyday and real–maybe beautiful, maybe not. Also included in some landscapes may be other artist’s work, like graffiti or graphic design (signs,) or still lifes that might include a sculpture or paintings done by someone else or myself.
It is all real and none of it is real and I can only hope for some truth.