In my current paintings, I am working to expand upon our experience of the fractured visuals that result from interrupted feeds in digital broadcasts.  The rectilinear divisions of space and the halting of motion, although not a pleasurable experience while viewing a movie or television show, is nonetheless an extension of the way we see- it is a new optical experience brought about by a technological glitch.  This flaw's translation into paint allows a visual marriage of modern and traditional concerns with representation- an interplay that has always intrigued me as an artist.

When a digital broadcast is disrupted, there is an underlying framework that surfaces in areas and echoes the constraints of the format.  In my paintings, I am working to integrate this "flaw" as part of the overall compositional arrangement and as a means for suggesting time and motion.  The organizing schema of an underlying grid allows me to interweave, kaleidoscopically, moments of realism, photographic effects such as double-exposure and blurring, and the more apparent language of the visual elements.  These are not new ideas in painting.  The futurists, cubists, and individuals like Isabel Bishop, all had similar optical concerns, but I am hoping to push the ideas further by integrating more solid representation along with the moments of abstraction in order to reference more directly the recent digital phenomenon.

The content in my paintings and the selection of imagery stems from an informal synthesis of my imagination, art history, contemporary culture and everyday interactions with others and the physical world. Often, there are moral/ethical underpinnings. My intent is to suggest the possibility of specific meanings without overstatement so that the revealing and obscuring of forms at the visual level finds a parallel in narrative and symbolic expression.

born: 1971, Grand Rapids, MI

education:

University of Cincinnati, MFA, 1998
Kendall College of Art and Design, 1995

selected awards/honors

Best of Show Award, Ohio All-Media Art Competition, Ashland University, 2008
Best of Show Award, Ohio All-Media Art Competition, Ashland University, 2006

selected solo or two-person exhibits

New Work, Fawick Gallery,  Cleveland, OH, 2009

selected group shows

Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN, 2010
Wide Open, Juried Group Exhibition,  B.W.A.C., Brooklyn, NY, 2010
International Figure Exhibition, Red Dot Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2005
Contemporary Realism, Space 301Gallery,  Mobile, AL, 2005