I believe that art’s main purpose is to serve as a platform for expression; this has long been the foundation of my creative process. Certain ideas and feelings, ranging from beautiful color compositions to very deep-seated emotions about our society and its absence of awareness, come to me and compel me to set them free into tangible form.
An artist must branch out constantly and express himself by any means possible. Feelings come to us for a reason; we can either give them breath or suffocate them with excuse. I find that certain works take on their own form and emerge in the media that best support their intended message. My work has recently been of a mixed-media sculptural nature and has taken on a political character because of my time living in D.C. Walking down the road, I might come across an old shirt or other item with a story of its own, hang onto it, and later find myself incorporating it into a piece that embodies an entirely unique set of ideas. When I originally found the object, the idea for its use had yet to come to me, but with time I know it will reveal itself. Going with this flow and taking life and its messages as they come are very important to my creative process. In the fits of expression and urgency that follow, my work ranges from color field oil paintings on ripped plywood to found-object installations and recreations.
Although my work has continually reflected a fairly wide scope of beliefs and ideas, I’ve always maintained a certain interest in the relationship between creation and destruction. What is that difference and where, if any, is the line between the two? Working in my undergrad program, I’d often finish a piece and find that it did not quite satisfy my sense of completion. Then, emboldened by a certain power of ownership, I’d go on to mold the piece and recreate it, using techniques that some might characterize as destructive. For example, I once finished a graphite still life rendering that observers claimed was perfectly done only to find that I had to let the pencils have their way and take some of that work back for themselves. This piece now includes those pencils scribbling over the drawing and stabbing into the paper, penetrating its “perfect” surface. I have always been influenced by this curious ambivalence about ownership and the dynamic that exists between the viewer’s idea of when a piece is complete and the creator’s decision to be finished with the work. This work continues to inform me that it’s the work’s choice to be finished with the creator. Thus I create and continue to exist.