The hopeful wilds of North America have long served as a release against the impending forces of industry. My own experiences are framed by a youthful and magical immersion in the lands of Northern Michigan against the imposing backdrop of the rise and fall of industrial Detroit. I find myself forever compelled by the narrative complexity, range of characterization, hefty grandeur, and fullness of these experiences born of the need for freedom, sanctuary and purpose.

As a painter, I am interested in searching out a deep, elemental longing for release as manifested in the escape to childhood places, times and individuals. My paintings are an investigation of mystery and wonder as refuge from the crushing certainties and repetition of a life in the factory. Memories of lost traveling companions are pushed against impressions of mechanical instrument panels, great and lonely vistas are infused with measurement data from robotic machines. Specifically, I am compelled by how underlying nature and structure, free from the trappings of façade, persona or identity, may be evoked or generated through the changing attitudes of sensuous paint and an alchemic process of decision and discovery.

The challenge of this project is to create poetic structures between representation, abstraction, and physicality that connect fixed personal sentiment and its release into the shifting, panoramic attitudes of paint and process.    

born: 1970, United States

education:

Michigan State University, MFA, 2007
Eastern Michigan University, BFA, 2003

selected publications

"Weak Painting": Catalog for international traveling show, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and Da Xiang Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan. Garden City Publishing Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan. 2009
"Studio Visit Magazine Winter Edition 2009": One page spread. The Open Studio Press, Boston, MA. 2009

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Leopold Bros. Gallery: 'Under Construction', Ann Arbor, MI, 2005

selected group shows

Max Fish Gallery, 'Swipple in the City', New York, NY, 2009.
Da Xiang Art Space, 'Weak Painting', Taipei, Taiwan. 2009.
Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, 'Weak Painting' Taipei, Taiwan. 2009.