ARTIST’S STATEMENT  |  BIOGRAPHY
I am most interested in the finding, that is, what happens when one is not ‘looking’. Art, the way I see it, is an excavation of truths. There is a certain magic that I respond to that occurs within the randomness and within the letting go. Much like memories, the unstructured elements oftentimes form part of an order, and that recognition can be very powerful. So for me, an artist is not so much an inventor than a medium that discovers what already exists, that finds something that belongs to everyone. The stage in which the painting comes together for me is very exciting because I recognize that, as I mentioned, it’s something that exists outside yourself, but the ability to see what you want to express also comes from within. The whole process is an exercise in maintaining detachment and faith. The kind of attachment I try to maintain is to that specific moment in time that I’m painting about. The process can be very reflective for me, it becomes a revelation of veils and layers of memory. But these organic washes of color that I’m talking about exist under the very controlled arrangement of sharp, flat shapes. This top layer dominates and conceals portions of that fluidity. It could well be the masculine and the feminine in their traditional implications. But I do feel as if it is a direct expression of the opposite but complementary forces that create human energy. Recently compiling and examining my paintings from over the years, I realize that they communicate strong associations to religious temples and to the intensity of life in southern Spain, a way of life that was once very influenced by religion. My childhood memories of the region have a similar texture to that of these temples. I am interested in religious visual components that are meant to inspire awe and devotion. Works such as Todo Cambia and The Wait carry some sense of that spirituality evoked by religious mysticism but within the irreverence of a secular context. There is a strong theatrical component originating in these churches that infiltrated religious rituals, festivals, politics and the drama that I associate with the south. When I walk into an older church or temple, I find my field of vision to be very layered by the lighting from different points and varying intensities, by the effect of the stained glass colors that penetrate the dimness of the temple. The smoke and the shadows from the candles and incense also screen one’s vision, adds the mystery that, by definition is related to the term ‘mysticism’. I have always been attracted to that palette, the reds, ochres, golds, and the light turquoise that coats the ceilings of the domes. The use of the human form, the barely covered christs, also inspire a reverence that I also feel with the study of the human body.