Artist Statement

 

“What is remembered, lives,” a grieving friend once said. My current work is a tribute to this premise.

 

Featuring thoughtful compositions of beloved objects of the deceased, my paintings aim to nurture a creative connection – one that evokes their presence on Earth even as they have departed from it.

 

I call these works my Presence of Absence paintings. They inhabit liminal space: what is both here and not here. My intention is to create paintings that offer the viewer emotional and spiritual resonance with the life represented. The paintings also speak to psychological presences and absences, such as emotional states and times of life which, while gone by, reveal lasting reverberations.  

 

My painting process mirrors this in-between state. For me, to paint is to lay down a world onto a blank surface, to spin an image, a moment, or a relationship into being, one brushstroke and one color at a time. This requires believing in the painting’s wholeness before it exists. It also calls for trusting what cannot yet be seen, much like the inner relationships we maintain with those who have gone before us. 

 

In my still lifes and interior scenes, I choose familiar objects and cherished belongings as vessels for memory, relationship, meaning, and connection which allows the paintings to speak to those inner states and offer symbolic interpretation.

 

Whether conjuring the comfort of a cozy breakfast table or honoring the enduring presence of someone who has passed, my paintings seek to create a pause, a holding environment of sorts, to nurture moments of connection, reflection, healing and ultimately happiness.

​