“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.”
“I work obstinately, and once in a while I catch a glimpse of the Promised Land… I have made some progress”

– Paul Cezanne

 

I am currently working on abstract issues where color, texture, paint handling and shallow spatial fields are explored. My largest paintings, 48 x 48, are done on canvas, but most of the other sizes are done on gesso board, flush mounted on 2” deep frames. These square paintings are extensively reworked, and feature layers that are sometimes translucent, sometimes opaquely rendered. Within this context, color sometimes depicts the spontaneous present but adjacent areas may reveal a studio autobiography of prior events. Historical associations are not only depicted at times through layering but also addressed through evocations of landscape.

In the spirit of Paul Cezanne, a stage is set where forms aren’t fully reconciled to their locations, where color and texture wrestle for dominance, and where lateral and spatial considerations jockey for position. Usually reinforced by a dominant color field, these paintings are holistic in sensibility, and have no obvious hierarchy. Looking at my paintings, I am often reminded of conflicting issues that we all face in our lives, such as personal freedoms versus societal regulations, and I see both of these reflected in these abstractions. In this same vein, architectonic elements, suggestive of man’s presence, are juxtaposed next to spontaneous color passages, which are to me emblematic of nature’s fondness for the free, whether at the super nova or subatomic level.