Artist Statement
Industrial architecture has always and continues to fascinate me. Growing up, I was surrounded by railways and industrial parks, their larger than life beams, bolts, and expanses impressed me and continue to dominate my work. The knowledge and skill it takes to design and build such immense structures with the purpose of service to community intrigues me. Definitions of purpose and questions about the nature of service swing into each other and jostle for position like the cranes of a construction site moving beams into place. These manufactured landscapes and their intended use versus their actual reality continue to be my artistic muse.
Visually, I recreate structure as a graphic object. Focusing on the defining lines and angles of architecture, I organize the space with marks on paper using graphite and charcoal. These characteristic industrial shapes represent what I see and feel in the objects. This graphic becomes a symbol for the sheer feat of engineering, a cipher for the physical act of construction. This graphic drawing is then transferred onto canvas, much as an architect's rendering must be transferred to an actual job site. The push/pull of negative against positive space on the painted surface echoes the struggle of strength and load bearing arrangements holding against the ceaseless pull of gravity on steel. As I paint, the rapid gestures, layering and dripping of paint, create energy, atmosphere and depth in the work. The interlocking structural supports of the objects become silhouetted against vacillating skies. Influences
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