Artist Statement

I’m not a painter…

In spite of the fact that you are viewing many of my works, which are primarily created using oil paints, I don’t consider myself a painter. I think of myself as a communicator, like a speechwriter, newspaper reporter, orator, or even in some aspects, a politician. I compose my ideas and try to present them in a manner that others can experience the way I feel while creating the composition. But where a speechwriter or reporter uses words to ply their trade, I am an artist, therefore I use the language of imagery to state my feelings and opinions. This imagery may vary from photography, to painting with realism, to figurative abstract, or even involve elements of found-object collage and assemblage. It may also vary from simple emotions like joy and contentment to more complex feelings such as fear, love and sadness. It is the process of communicating my ideas that is important more than the media used. In fact, it is the creative process of the communication that is important to me. While I am working on a piece, I am emotionally tied to it to the point of distraction. It becomes the sole focus of what I am doing. However, when I bring a piece to completion, the emotional attachment dissolves. I don’t feel the post partum effect that some artists talk about as much as I feel as though I’ve committed a captured moment of my essence and released it to the ether. The way a spoken word floats ever outward into space.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Present Tense

Present Tense
Oil on Canvas
30 x 34 inches
2007

This painting is in response to a photo that I ran across from a news story of a church sponsored book burning. The book burning was not from last century or nazi Germany but from here in the USA and only 3 years ago! I couldn't beleive what I was seeing and I felt the need to further document this event with this painting. The smoky text in the background is in German and roughly translates as: ' when we begin burning books, next we will be burning people'. This line is from a German play from 1821. I find the timeline of this poem, the nazi bookburnings on the 1930's-40's and the book burnings sponsored by today's religeous extremists to be very disturbing. Some of the books featured in the painting are Flowers in the Attic , Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Daddy's New Roommate, and Lord of the Flies. All of these books have been banned at one time or another.
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