painter
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Buick Upper - 2000 - Oil on Canvas - 20" X 24"
Buick Lower - 2000 - Oil on Canvas - 20" X 24"
Statement
I grew up on an island in SE Alaska with people who made their livings on fishing boats and in saw mills. It was the edge of the earth, a landscape battered by storms, carpeted with moss, and the people who lived there were bound together by the stories they told. I grew up listening to those stories, and my work comes from the same narrative tradition.
My paintings describe the mystery and humility I see in the world around me, our human condition, and our landscape. I am self-taught, and have been painting for the last decade. Coming from outside of the professional and academic art world I have worked very hard to form my ideas about art, bringing my personal history in tow. This is a tradition of its own.
I believe painting is an act of great social relevance, and that painting for a public uninitiated to art history is important. The artist has the responsibility to assert himself, while remaining mindful of his traditions and refusing to take the audience’s capacity to understand and participate for granted.