As a painter, I hold
several things with irony and fondness: the painterly gesture of dead,
white males, the earnest narratives of the WPA, the sarcasm of the surrealists,
and the magical powers of icons. I believe in the tension between the picture
plane and the illusion of depth. I believe in the ability of narrative
to change us. I believe in the poetry of the chance meeting between the
sewing machine and the umbrella on the operating table. I believe in the
role of the image as a vehicle for transformation.
In my own paintings I create scenarios, protagonists, and spaces that wrestle
with opposing forces: obscurity and fame, rationalism and faith, nesting
and escape, hubris and diffidence. The work starts with a specific locale
(usually in Denver) and goes from there to become a stage for these wrestling
matches. I strive for an illusionistic, theatrical setting of a "museum
of strange things."
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