The Arranged Stones
series came from a chance encounter with a few attractive stones that I
picked up along a walk. I immediately decided not to paint the rocks in
their natural environment, but instead wanted to show them against a
spare, interior setting. I wanted the subject of the painting to be
nothing more or less than the rocks themselves: rocks as still life
subjects that I compose and then transform into an interesting
painting. I chose also to use watercolor to depict the rocks, in order
to show and emphasize their bright, often translucent natural beauty.
This first painting led to many others
like it: my work takes rocks from their native environment and places
them within the walls of my studio. I emphasize the displacement of the
rocks as objects in my paintings by portraying them in white, sterile,
interior settings, thereby addressing the juxtaposition of the natural
and the manmade. I carefully select and arrange the rocks in purposeful
ways, so as to invoke a sense of humanity, continuing the concept of a
human touch being imposed upon nature or natural elements.
By doing this, I
hope to create a dialogue between the rocks and their previous habitat,
as well as for the viewer to be reminded of the original site from
which the rocks were taken. I desire to show the viewer that which is
generally considered ordinary, but in reality is beautiful, and of
great significance. I seek to show something that is not only
personally significant to me, but is fundamental to the world, and to
every human being. My recent inclusion of living (or previously living)
natural elements, such as leaves and grasses, further emphasizes these
themes and ideas.
It is my ultimate intention
that the
viewer will be presented and confronted with the corresponding
connections and relationships between interior and exterior spaces,
manmade and natural elements, and the viewer (or humanity) with the
natural, outside world. The connections that I have discovered through
the process of making the work will hopefully be communicated to the
viewers through their own personal interactions with it. Furthermore,
these issues may lead the viewer to consider his or her own
relationship with the earth and with natural elements that are so often
overlooked.