Artist Statement

Art does not reside in the art object; it is created by the viewer. Art-work is a medium for asynchronous conversation between artist and viewer. It enables the viewer to create art, but it is not art itself. The object of art exists as an indexical sign framing the engagement between artist and viewer. It exists not for its own sake, but to raise questions; to promote the formation of new thought; to allow the viewer to finish the art.

Artwork that steps beyond the canonical boundaries of the term is necessarily difficult. It is the artist’s job to create a conceptual map of uncharted territory, and forge new neural pathways that will make it understandable. This endeavor calls for a holistic engagement with the world--intellectually, physically, and metaphysically--with the prospect of material reward being uncertain at best. Rather the reward comes from an almost religious faith that this attempt to influence the cultural evolution of the species is meaningful--that this work may transcend our limited time on this planet.

Form and its manipulation are sensually seductive: the feel of a wood's grain beneath fingertips, the smell of oil paint on canvas, the sound of crickets on a warm summer night, the patterns of wind blowing like waves through prairie grass. The production of artwork transports the artist to that place where time disappears and the moment resounds in the heart of itself. There is truth in this. But to stop here as an artist is to make artwork that is only half-realized. The mind and the body are not separable nor is life and art. Suffering is not abstract. Injustice stalks us like a ghost. To ignore the human condition is to make artwork that converses with itself in isolation; artwork that is divorced from human experience; artwork that is lifeless.

Understanding is an evolutionary process, and the creation of artwork is a journey of discovery. The artist walks on ground that stretches unbroken back to the first human impulse to visual representation. As an artist, I strive to understand and bear forward this cultural torch that is fueled by the like-minded efforts of artists past and present.