My work is an attempt to use straightforward representational painting in order to explore subtle sources of tension.

The series of bathroom interiors, for example, suggests the possibility of sanctuary in a familiar, everyday environment.  The tubs are meant as icons of refuge in the midst of the complexity of contemporary life.  But as the images in the series progress, visual hints imply something amiss.  Two small sandals sit by a tub.  But the mood set by light and color is ominous.  And the tub’s foot is gone, so that it rests impossibly in the air.  The aim is to suggest that both the sanctuary and the image are ultimately illusory.  I hope to convey not sanctuary but something less clear, some other comprehension reserved for the viewer who confronts the relative nature of the image.

The Little People series is in an early experimental stage.  I cast these childhood dolls in plaster in order to imbue them with the same sculptural qualities of the tubs, before painting from the casts.  The dolls, like the tubs, are exaggerated in order to give them a statuesque importance.  These are icons of permanence rather than refuge, but in the end I hope to confront the viewer with a similar observation, that permanence and the image are relative, giving rise to the tension experienced in seeking them.