Artist Statement
My paintings explore the idea that the basic human drive to ornament the material world is fundamentally innate, irresistible, and at its core, motivated by deeper impulses to understand: the meaning of life, the implications of humanity's interrelationship with the natural world. I use painting as a vehicle to engage with the act of ornamentation as a disciplined and sustained practice, and as a means of dialoging with fine art, folk art and craft traditions that for centuries have sought to interpret nature through a lens of careful and ornate pattern work, ultimately echoing the cellular patterns that constitute all matter. Employing a highly detailed visual language incorporating elements of landscape and textile design, my paintings reflect a wide range of influences, including traditional Indian and aboriginal painting, psychedelic art, graphic design, Japanese landscape painting, medieval Catholic illuminated manuscripts, Victorian imagery, art nouveau and more. The work is rendered primarily in oil and gold leaf on canvas, in series of twenty to thirty paintings, painted in many layers, over time.