Mixed media on deep wood panel with collage.
As we entered the trail from the roadway my whole body relaxed. It wasn’t that it was a familiar trail. In fact, the trail was narrow, but what enclosed us was not rock or water (both of which I love) but trees. In “Trees: Between Earth and Heaven” Wade Davis in the introduction to this book of photographs by Art Wolfe talks about the different viewpoints humans have about the forests. Some groups view the forest as simply something to be cut and transformed by human imagination, but other groups view it as a place to be revered, the domain of spirits.
I am part of one of those second groups. The forest is my haven. This painting “Santuary” is part of a new series called “Pilgrimage” that will be both a look back at where these forest trails have brought me to at this point and where they have yet to deliver me.
Whether visual or tactile, textures are always my first application, and they engage me throughout the process. Central to my paintings, these textures are multi-layered and fragmented and are created by addition to or subtraction from the surface.
I may press found objects into the surface, encase materials, paint over them, apply markings and collage, or scrape and incise to reveal the layers beneath. One layer may be placed on top of the other, only to have earlier layers exposed or “excavated.” Images emerge; text becomes texture or line; and symbols connect the diverse elements, integrate the work, and define the boundaries. Turning things over, viewing them from various angles, scratching beneath the surface, allows me to explore what is not always visible.
Ultimately, however, it is the dialogue between all these—texture, symbols, markings—that define my art.