Isolation Works

The last year brought me to as-yet unseen and un-experienced landscapes, skies and vistas — both personal and physical. After living in Montréal and then more recently, New York City, the vast and prolific landscapes of Alberta, Canada was at once shocking and comforting. These places gave me the space and "permission" to use them as “armatures” for the layering of sometimes imaginary or exaggerated elements: elements of texture that I might find in foods or fabrics and elements of fantastical colour that I experience before falling asleep. Indeed, much of what I end up painting is often a hybrid of what I have seen during my waking life and what images flash through my brain as I make repeated efforts to sleep

My most recent studio has been a 30”-square card table, some paints, pencils and paper along with whatever else I could find that will make a mark or give some lumpiness to an otherwise smooth surface. There are times when restrictions in space and medium can be a guide to a new way of image-making, treating surface and in fact, seeing. Interestingly, finding new and personal ways of image-making seems to create a new way of viewing the subject itself — forming a "mobius strip" of interactions.