The element of water and its relationship to humans and the environment has been a

consistent theme through my creative research. My paintings reflect the complex and

disturbing dialogue between humans and natural bodies of water. The ephemeral quality

of these fragile environments and there relationship to all living things inspire me.  I use

layers of color, patterns, shape, texture and mark making to address issues of beauty and

loss, time and transformation.  Residing somewhere between realism and abstraction, my

paintings become visual diaries upon which I record responses to the threatened

landscapes and estuaries.

This most current body of work represents a creative direction that began in the Fall 2011,

when I traveled to France with research support from the University of Minnesota and the

McKnight Foundation Imagine Fund. While in France, I traveled from Paris to the Normandy

coast visiting French Impressionistic landmarks. The most influential component of the trip

was the short period I visited the impressionistic port city of Honfleur. Honfleur is especially

known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered

frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugene

Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur

school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement.

The reflections that occurred in the port mirrored an impressionistic painting approach, but

also offered a glimpse of what many previous painters had seen centuries ago. These

reflections changed quickly depending on the time of the day, weather, and wind that

affected the port. The distortion of the reflection provided myself with a direction and plenty

of resource materials to make paintings that were complex in color, movement and

abstraction. The combination of these elements provide me with interesting images that

captured the vibrancy of the port along with acknowledging its strong connection to the

Impressionistic movement. My fieldwork encompassed documenting the port through

digital photographs at several times of the day.  In the studio I worked from the digital

photographs and produced paintings that mirrored these complex reflections from the

Honfleur port.

The formal components of making a painting continues to serve as my guide and tools for

producing new works. It is the relationship between these basic components that has

allowed me to investigate themes of water within a distorted reality. The layered forms,

striping, cropped shapes, and diligent mark making allows me to invent a personal

language. It is through my paintings, that I hope to provoke the viewer to become visually

literate to his/her own environment and begin to contemplate their relationship within that

environment.