Artist's Statement: 2009 Solo Exhibition
Season’s End
© 2008
My recreational pursuits often put me on or near water, bike paths, trails, and in the woods. These activities and my time outdoors have provided many images for this show. In the studio, I’m aware of how much the natural world has become the dominant source of inspiration for my paintings as I work to re-create what I experience there. Seeking to be refreshed or restore balance, I head back out and gather more images along the way.
More than being about a specific place in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Michigan, these are paintings of places to be, places for contemplation. There aren’t any chores here and whatever physical labor is required to arrive at these places is part of the pleasure. I have used images from my travels as source material for my paintings for many years, but these images seem to focus intently on the stillness and quiet of a place. Perhaps I am more drawn to explore that which is so elusive in my daily life. When time in the studio is frustrating and labored, I look around at what I’ve been working on and chuckle -- it looks like I’m trying to create a place where I want to be. Like meditation, re-creating moments of down time within nature’s beauty offers a place to pause. Sharing these times with like-minded friends, at their cabins and lakes or on bikes on trails, can help etch those images even deeper.
These paintings have continuity with my earlier work. I still seek to simplify the overwhelming details of nature and to abstract shapes and space. I have one watercolor and a trio of small, square oils on panel that are the result of an expedition to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. By kayaking the clear Lake Superior water, one could get in touching distance of other-worldly walls of multi-colored rocks. The oil series acts as a narrative, giving snippets of color, details and patterns observed. My continued interest in the balance between abstraction and representation is evident.
The scale of the work for this show continues to be modest which I believe invites a more intimate viewing. I am not seeking to capture vastness or grandeur in the work. I see some of the images more as interiors than as traditional landscapes. For example, the cropping of the scene, the view from inside the canoe, and the proximity of the paddler’s back create an intimacy in “Glide (Lumen Lake)” and “Stroke (Lumen Lake),” offering a contrast to the panoramic water and woodland setting beyond. The simple gesture of the tree in “Trout Lake Tree Pose” is also contained by a canvas which is scaled to permit the water and tree to bend around one another, to frame one another and create new shapes. I was drawn to both the movement and stability present in that scene and couldn’t help but make connections to yoga.
How do we access that quiet place of contentment within us? As I get older, I have made peace with the fact that I need much space around me to accomplish anything in the studio. Yoga, poetry, music, and recreating in nature are all valued for providing that space. I have learned to practice regularly the activities that restore me and to be grateful for those that provide end products to enjoy like cooking and gardening. What are my goals for this body of work? Tell a story. Take a viewer to a place I’ve been. Tell them about a tree, a place, a feeling. Leave them in that quiet place.
I would like to acknowledge a 2009 residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, IL, which was critical to the development of this body of work.