ARTIST STATEMENT

These paintings of invented landscapes and interiors examine the dramatic process of losing an identity for the sake of a deeper self-understanding.  They track the moment of transition from our culturally prescribed and circumscribed identity, to the single unlimited and expansive self: from an artificial and constructed identity, to the all-inclusive and comprehensive self.  Like a brittle house caught in a natural disaster, our cherished and familiar identity gives way.  Only then are we open and available for the alternate and seemingly foreign experience of our actual self.

The narrative theme of a natural disaster is evident in most of the paintings.  Fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes wreak havoc on human habitations. The natural disasters are either in full force or are implied by the type of destruction they leave behind.  Yet the paintings are still and calm. 

Through its scale and cataclysmic impact, the dramatic personal trial that occurs when our familiar identity splinters and gives way mirrors a natural disaster.  The tectonic shift from our familiar identity to a new self-understanding, like a natural disaster, presents formidable challenges that must be addressed not only on a practical level, but also psychologically and metaphysically.  The transition, however, leads to deep stillness.