I am constantly drawing, and these process-oriented acrylic and mixed media on wood drawings/paintings evolve from my abundant collections of sketched-on scraps of paper and wood. Created through the accumulation of many marks and layers of paint, they are often glued together, sawed into smaller compositions, cut apart, reoriented, sanded, scraped, and repainted. It is often difficult to know exactly when a work is complete, but I try to make each painting evolve in a different way than the one that came before it by finding the right balance between clarity and disintegration.

Through this balance of process, form, and material, I want each work to exhibit a kind of awkward familiarity.
The drawings are both blobish diagrams of daily processes and epic abstractions of past art. They are also informed by such non-art drawings as carved initials in trees, phone conversation doodles, and the walls of a well-lived-in house. This daily record of mark making fascinates me, for it is an indication of the overwhelming need to leave a visible record of our existence.

 

born: 1973, Butler, Pennsylvania

education

Virginia Commonwealth University, MFA, 2000
Kutztown University, BS, 1996

selected awards/honors

Third Place Award/Grant, Virginia A. Groot Foundation, 2006
Individual Artist Fellowship, Kentucky Arts Council, 2004
Resident Artist, Penland School of Crafts, 2000-2001
Emerging Artist Grant, American Craft Council, 2001

selected publications

Penland Book of Woodworking, Lark Books, 2007
New American Paintings, No. 64, The Open Studios Press, 2006

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Renovated Flightless Devices, Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, 2007
Sculpture + Painting, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA, 2007
Drawn + Pulled (installation with Brandon C. Smith), Project Space, Lexington Art League, KY, 2007
Objects and Drawings, Townsend and Szorad, Louisville Visual Art Association, KY, 2005

selected group shows

Speaking in Species, Kendall College of Art + Design, Grand Rapids, MI, 2007
Misdemeanor, Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, OH, 2006
Edges of Grace, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, 2006
Materail Matters, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, New York, NY, 2005