Artist's Statement - Paintings

These paintings represent some of my work from the past several years, and speak to transformation, the transitory nature of material things, and the value of each moment we fully experience. Color is the lifeblood of my work, followed by light and shadow … all elements that are impermanent and subject to context, time, weather, and memory.

The triptychs, part of an ongoing series, imply the human body and presence through the suggestion of a garment with sleeves outstretched, inspired by the Japanese kimono, as well as traditional Korean dress, whose color relationships have also affected these paintings. The "arms" of the canvases extend the space of the paintings and evoke, I hope, an expansion or reaching out, both literally and metaphorically, beyond the confines of our own experience. This is conflated, in my mind, with the form and centrifugal force of the altarpiece. And the references to ladders and ropes are meant to suggest passage from one state or space to another.

By crossing cultures, geography and time, I mean to suggest the inescapable connection between ourselves and a larger world. In some of the most recent paintings, I use an invented vocabulary of shapes and colors to evoke the luxuriant, sensual quality of gardens. Layerings and traces indicate the passage of time and process of thought in paint and arise from memories of things seen and experienced over time and place. These pieces are a dance between color and shape, including the shape of the canvases, and they reflect on the inevitable role that transformation plays in nature and our existence.