Statement
I am concerned with behavior,identity, and paradigms…
“A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.”
….generations of human experience… “sins of the fathers”….
My imagery lately has focused on those who strive to find a distinct, persisting identity in themselves as well as community… and the conflict that presents….
Paradox:
“An assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises”
A seemingly contradictory statement that may still be true…..
statement
Traditions, Customs, Values. These words evoke nostalgic notions of human behavior. With every revolution in a generational cycle, the members of a community must choose whether to honor these ideas or to challenge them. Often, though, our casual behavior-the things that we do without thinking, or the things that we think without considering-is lumped in with our conscious behavior and labeled “normal” simply because it is familiar.
How much of this casual behavior is socially constructed? How much is instinctive? How much is specific to a certain culture? How much is common to the human experience?
My work attempts to approach examples of cyclical patterns of casual behavior in human interaction. The investigation of meandering notions of hierarchy, tradition, gender roles, politics, race, and spirituality is central to my process. These images refer to my perception of normal, everyday life in South Louisiana now and in times past, drawn from my own experience and from the personal accounts and remnants left behind by those before me.
For me, painting and printmaking provide a unique platform for investigating the truth and facts behind the ideal and the mundane, as well as the language of my perception of reality. It allows me to consider each layer as I reconstruct the icons of the world I know. I consistently push the margins of my technical ability, as making a painting involves the manipulation of real matter, and new ends can only be achieved by ambitious means. When I approach a canvas that is bigger than I am-a raw surface that I must somehow force into a consistency that is sometimes beyond my own control-I am reminded of and humbled by the power of painting.
The challenges of making a painting or print epitomize the confines of casual behavior; I must daily rid myself of the notion of a fixed vocabulary where logic and common sense tell me what is red, what is a chair, or what is a wall. I have to be prompted by the material and realign my objectives with how images are made rather than how things are recognized. I have to essentialize the characteristics that make things what they are without relying on what I was taught or what I unconsciously accepted.