Artist Statement
I have always been close to the land, felt part of it. As a child, it pained me to tears every time a new housing development went in near our house, or a new road was carved into the ground, destroying the woodlands that I felt connected to and was playground and companion. And while I eventually resigned myself to the fact that this was just the way things go, I never have felt entirely comfortable with it.
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| Prairie's Edge (Western Slope 3) oil on paper, 24 x 36 inches |
The idea that these landscapes are cut up and carved out, and broken down, reflects what has happened to much of our Colorado landscape in sometimes intelligent and many times misguided attempts to make life better in some fashion for its inhabitants. The sometimes unintended, and sometimes intentional consequences have resulted in lands, waterways, and natural features taking a beating..... stamped on, trampled over, bulldozed, cut up by highways, destroyed by drilling, fracking, and abuses. In these pieces I have broken down large landscape pieces into smaller bits, dripped and thrown paint, scratched and scraped back some of the shapes the way I would approach a pure abstract painting, in order to see some of the history of the painting process. I have also erased some of the process in other parts of the painting, very much the way much of our natural history has been erased, not just in Colorado, but everywhere.
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| Prairie's Edge (Western Slope 3) oil on paper, 20 x 24 inches |
These pieces were the result of a lot of studio experimentation and process toward my goal of abstracting the landscape, but I didn't really see the connection to some very old buried feelings that had surfaced until well after these particular paintings were completed. I didn't set out to make that statement. But over the course of a lifetime of pursuing art, I would imagine that, all that I feel, all that I experience, and everything that has made me what I am will eventually find its way into the art making process. It is the result of a lifetime of exploring the question as to why I paint.
Contact us at 303.333.4144 or info@saksgalleries.com for more information.
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