Painting Process

Tell us a little about yourself and what it is that you create.

“I’ve always had a strong awareness and concern for the environment and the importance of protecting it. I also hold an immense sense of wonder for the natural world. These two things have created in me a deep reverence for nature and understanding of all life as sacred. I create oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings that are influenced by these beliefs. I sometimes mix gravel, sand, dirt, wax, or fibers into my oil paint to create sculptural moments in the paintings and incorporate tangible elements of the landscape.”

Why do you create? What inspires your work?

“My work has always been inspired by my connection to nature and to my spirituality. Painting is a way for me to process my experiences, and sometimes to hold memories close for a little longer. I paint the things I love, the things I’m moved by, the things I fear, and the things I desire. My work is about my physical and perceivable connection with our planet, and simultaneously and paradoxically, my ethereal experiences that remain intangible. ”

What’s your process like? Tell us a little about what you do.

“I record my experiences in nature in sketchbooks, as photographs, and as collected objects which I bring back into my studio. While I am painting, I am often enmeshed in a landscape of my own creation, surrounded by branches, plants, rocks, and other objects that inspire me or help me recall the particular feelings from the time I discovered them. I work directly from or with these natural objects, sketches, and photographs to create paintings that feel as if they were gleaned from the landscape. ”