My current body of work uses abstraction to communicate the contemporary zeitgeist. The conflation of personal narrative, poetry, mythology, and iconography create environments that rattle the viewer’s preconceptions and open them to broader questions of humanity, spirituality, and the role of art in fostering dialogue.
Present within the paintings and sculptures are elements of pain, rooted in despair. This subversive content is born from a life-long, continual self-appraisal. It signifies a coming-to-terms with my American Anglo-Christian heritage – a heritage fraught with both personal and public aberrations. By presenting this ultra-personal narrative through such a universally relatable sentiment, I hope to offer transparency and give the viewer the same opportunity and space for reflection and reconciliation that I experienced in the act of creating – a penance, if you will, toward some future atonement.
My blatant appropriation of objects and ideas and the frequent allusion to iconic forms within the work are used as personal and universal tropes, raising pressing questions about the efficacy of appropriation within the arts, religion and politics without asserting a particular ethical standpoint or rhetoric. This gives viewers a space to develop and interpret the content on their own terms, offering a theoretical transparency aimed at dispelling mystery and democratizing experience. The goal is to encourage communication and foster debate.
The work calls for a loosening of the subjective truths and opinions people hold, and provides a greater objectivity of experience and identity. The result becomes a mirror image of a true, universal self – both the beautiful and horrible. Here, one can address, without risk of oppression, the inconsistencies and dichotomies that define human existence. Through dialogue and self-appraisal, it offers an opportunity for unity in an increasingly divided world..jpg)