Artist's Statement

My concern is mortality: what we leave behind as individuals, and what will endure as a people. In my art I often use the city as my backdrop, my inspiration, aspects of my childhood, my roots. I use train tracks, electric lines, structures, building, and bridges to remind us of a route, a journey we must each travel. These connectors, these bonds represent Community, a series of the many collectives we may seek or join, much like a recreation of the Family.

City represents its people: their social trends, the economic state, our political situation, and even the shortcomings of serving its people. All can be visually seen and interpreted. While figures may not be present in  my work, it is the human impact, the human condition that is present. It is this multi-layered complexity, this never ending source of material that inspired me to set as a goal the creation of one-hundred paintings of City, and not necessarily any particular City, although growing up in Chicago has certainly influenced me. I strive to make each piece distinct, unique, representing a varied aspect, another view of urban life which is unlike the previous work by using a different perspective, a different palette, a new approach.

In each work I try to include a tree, a branch, foliage, or clouds symbolizing Nature, our common denominator. My landscapes are a respite from dense urban life, a reminder of the horizon, our unknown future, with farmland or unsullied earth in the foreground. Sometimes, slicing through its layers of deposits like an anthropologist, I want to remind us of our past, our beginnings. We must not forget that our earth, our land is not owned by us. It is merely borrowed from Nature to be inherited by future generations.