A rendition of my ever evolving artist statement

Working under the discipline of painting, I create paintings that vary in size but remain committed to embellishing the materials I use in creating the work. Within my paintings, to embellish the materials means to decorate using the material. Decorate refers to making more attractive through ornament.

There is a strict criteria I follow when choosing materials. The criteria is two fold. First, the materials I use in a painting tend to be plain things. These plain things range from toilet paper to mustard to bubble wrap. Many of the plain, boring things I choose for my paintings are just around, not typical objects of strong material desire. Second, visual tactility is a criteria in the process of choosing materials. By visual tactility I am referring to using materials which often appeal to the senses of touch and sight.

Using texture, I aim to stimulate the desire to touch. The surface of the painting is multi-leveled, with the intention of tempting the viewer to run their hand over the nooks and crannies. Concerning sight, I employ tactics of gloss and varnishes to draw the viewers’ eye. Once gloss lures the viewer in, I aim to keep the viewer’s attention through layering and slight color differences.