I’m not a paleontologist but these scientists and I share a similar concern, dinosaurs.  Unveiled in my paintings through unpredictable mark making, I have developed a curiosity for these massive creatures from the past.  Previously bound by conventions from the 90-degree angle of the canvas, I decided to lay the canvas on the ground as if to mimic a paleontological dig but one where the process is creation, rather than unearthing. This change of approach pushed my thinking towards the abstract.  Letting loose of convention and painting freely, I began to recognize paint as a more versatile material.  Soon, strokes began taking on the forms of dinosaurs.  Tops of mountains resembled pterodactyls and the sides of mountains, brontosaurs.  I was intrigued and pursued this new way of working and focusing on dinosaurs and their relationship towards nature.

Now, I capture subtle moments of apprehension between present day mammals and pre-historic life that coexist in an imaginative world of evolutionary tension masked with childlike conceits. Linking pre-history to the present enables the unearthing of consistencies and contradictions inherent in two worlds separated by millions of years.

Formally speaking, dinosaurs are instantly recognizable and pervasive in our culture, yet no human has ever seen one.   This conflation of the imaginary and the once real gives me a freedom of representation.  While in one way, dinosaurs echo classical representations of monsters and mythical beasts, the contemporary context clearly changes our impression.  In a time where climate change and population explosion are constantly talked about in mass media, references to these victims of mass extinction seems simultaneously anachronistic and chillingly prescient.

Though nearly masked by whimsical color, purity of paint application and the intended naïve depictions of animals and dinosaurs, tension and animosity prevail.  I embrace the area in which the subject becomes one with nature, yet distinctly separate.  Just when one believes they have discovered all nuances, another paint mark reveals something vaguely familiar.

My technique of painting emphasizes the tension between paint-as-material and its representational function. Loose, gestural abstraction is paired with pseudo-realistic renderings. The paint’s materiality is evident through its transparency and opaqueness, its syrupiness and viscosity, and high-keyed color versus soft, muted tones.