New Works

Pictured is a yet untitled work. It is acrylic and bubble wrap relief on panel with epoxy. The size is 12" x 12". The work floats off the wall approximately half an inch.

This piece is constructed of bubble wrap relief, pulled through using latex and acrylic paints, then placed on a panel which was gold-leafed. The piece floats off the wall approximately half an inch. The size of the panel is 12" x 12". Again, this piece is untitled as of now.

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.

Additional Criteria Considerations

Steaming off the previous entry on material choices, I follow a second criteria when choosing materials. The previous criteria mentioned was choosing materials based on their plain, boring objectness. In addition, sensuality is a criteria in the process of choosing materials. If there is a surface texture that has great viscosity and tactility, I become attracted to the material for this sensual quality. The same attraction works when a material has a smooth, glass'like gloss such as epoxy. For installation work, the sensuality may come in the form of sounds created. When a material has sensual qualities of touch (and sound for installation), there is a greater chance I will work with the material in a piece.

Pictured is an installation from the previous year that used strips of aluminum from beer cans and pop cans. The cans hung in a tree, creating a beautiful wind-chime like sound in the wind. The aluminum also had a great reflective nature to it.

Criteria For Materials

When choosing materials to work with, careful consideration and criteria is need. By choosing one material over another, that material is being privaledged. For me, choosing a material to use, such as toilet paper and bubble wrap, comes down to the basic question of what is plain, boring. To answer this question, I consider what materials are consistent in every class, what the rich and poor share, have in their lives alike.

Images of New Works and Textures!

Bubble Wrap

Increasing play with materials, I am currently working with bubble wrap. Following the relief discovery of acrylic gesso and plastic, I am attempting to pull the relief of bubble wrap using acrylic gesso. If successful, the relief will float on the white gallery wall, for its presentation.

The color white and various surface textures are influencing my newer works, even though I am moving away from the materials of toilet paper and themes of spirituality. Spirituality and the figure of Jesus are still influences on my personality, but are moving further away from my current body of work.

Images of new work will be up very soon, I promise.

Plastic- It's Fantastic!

Recently, I discovered an amazing technique on pure accident. Acrylic gesso doesn't stick to plastic. When applied in thin layers, many layers are visible at once and in a very slim package. The textures of the wrinkles the plastic has shows through wonderfully with the white color scheme I am currently using. Shadows and depth become more apparent with the white, yet the piece is remarkably thin and flat. Imagine relief done with paint, and no structure other than paint being necessary to hold the relief of an object. Paint creates the image, the relief, and the structure.