My drawings are passionate images of obsessively developed forms that are stirred by science and the sacred. My drawings are both preconceived and intuitive. I stitch the ineffable substance of spirituality to my surface using creatively intentioned line. My drawings inspire a deeper reflective mood and I desire that my audience connect personally and subjectively to them. My work gives visual representation to the wild and mysterious language of spirituality.

I am influenced by the microscopic world of cells and the vast expanse of the cosmos. I have no strict routine or extensive preparatory planning to create my forms. Instead, I try out different methods of throwing, splattering, sponging or spaying the wash onto the paper. I really enjoy the physical act of applying the wash. I experience a mix of reckless joy and an anxiety about messing it up. It feels on the edge of being chaotic, but is reigned in by compositional considerations, the conscious influence of my aesthetic education and understanding of formal elements ebb and flow in a relationship with the intuitive and visceral experience with the materials.

After the wash dries I revisit the piece anew. The second step of my work is the process of drawing into the forms with line. This process takes considerable more time and is an enjoyable active meditation. I move into the pits and gaps of the wash, discovering areas of volume and positive/negative relationships. The lines reach and connect. They are layered and knotted together to create density. It may appear that the line is trying to contain the wash and can suggest a message about chaos and control. I see it differently. The wash invites the line to search it, explore it, to move in and give it describable shape. To me it expresses the beauty in dichotomy

We are all spiritual. We are more than the constructs of our environment. Somehow we reflect the Divine in our spirits. It is hard to understand the spirit aside from the intimate experiences of life and the intuition that there is something else inside us. I believe but do not know yet how to speak about this raw and mysterious part of humanity. The term ineffable is defined as an incapability of being expressed in words. When I make my work I shift into a sense of awareness that the spiritual and tangible experience is happening at the same time. I open myself to this quiet harmony of this truth. I dwell on it and mediate on my reaction to it. I try to imagine the deeper places of conflict and communication into a place of sacred turbulence. I want to depict what could be real if we had the eyes to see it. I want to describe the sacred. The soul is not a bland substance like a spiritual social security card. It is a living habitat for all the unique and significant aspects of our identity. It is irreducibly complex.

My drawings are a response to the beauty and sorrow of the hidden places of the soul. My drawings are a prayer to God and about God, a prayer of excited gratitude, for I realize that there is a mystery beyond my imagination. I join that mystery when I draw. These images are intended to represent the inner parts of the soul and the intrinsic connection we have as a community and with the Divine.

 

born: 1979, Colorado Springs, Colorado

education

Kendall College of Art and Design, MFA, 2007
Eastern Michigan University, BFA 2005

selected publications

Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, MI. H8, Dec. 24, 2006
Cellar Roots, Ypsilanti, MI. p. 42, 2003
Cellar Roots, Ypsialnti, MI. p. 52,55.2002

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Obsessive Line, Capsule Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI. Sept-Dec. 2006

selected group shows

Drawing No Conclusions, UICA, Grand Rapids, MI
Fun P.I.G.S on Parade, Alternative Space Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI. April, 2006.