Wire Works 2012-works in progress 2013

Related Wire Work Drawings 2012-13

Molded Paper Works

I did my first molded paper painting in gouache in 2005. Since the idea of working on shaped canvases or dimensional surfaces was first introduced to me in college by Ron Gorchov, I have been making stretchers out of wiremesh and canvases with aluminum covered shapes making a tectonic surface. These packing materials seemed like a ready made material for me.

Copulae Series 2005-2011

This series started as an investigation into line. I started with black tempera on paper. I wanted the water and paint to organically create the drawing besides the controll of the hand. I choose to paint from my own photographs and the work evolved as the choice of the photograph became more and more significant.

I started thinking of these works as "visual poems". I like the way a poems meaning can sneak up on you and perhaps be totally different to each viewer. The word "Copulae" came to me right before my show at Art101. I had started to associate these paintings with this jingle that my 8th grade English teacher made us memorize-

am, I, was, were,be, being, been, is, appear, become, continue, remain, see, smell, sound, taste, feel, grow, look.

For some reason I thought these words assembled as good an artist statement as any and I started to use them as my artist statement. It turned out that they are members of the "Copulae or linking verbs" in english grammar. Sometimes they are known as the passive verbs. They seem to me reflect "living" and that perfectly described the works I was making and the "line" I was I was colaborating with. So for me it was all a happy discovery.