Whether as a photograph or 3D model, the form of a house is the starting point in my paintings. From there I explore the ideas we associate with the symbol of the home: economic issues, urban planning, ecological concerns, personal goals, and the iconic pursuit of the American Dream. The dripping and swirling paint imposed onto these houses evokes references ranging from decorative marbling techniques to environmental disasters, and even the metaphor of mortgages being “under water.” Our modern world can at times feel like it has been thrown into chaos, and these fantastical paintings represent a visualized fiction of that turmoil, simultaneously imbued with playfulness and humor.
Paint serves as the primary source of action in my mixed media art. It overtly represents my intentions with the given subject of the house. I allow the paint’s fluidity – its physicality – to inform the meaning of the work. Like fractal geometry happening at multiple scales, drips invariably reference the same movement in larger bodies of fluid; swirls mirror organic growth patterns; tiny dots remind us of miniature worlds beyond the micro level of visibility. As creator of this universe, I impose arbitrary, aesthetic rules while applying the paint – e.g. “orange dots go on top of green drips” and so forth. While these systems are created on a whim, the resultant regularity mimics the rules of growth patterns found throughout nature. This new world may not make complete sense to us, but it clearly knows itself.