It's one of my least favorite words. Ordinary. I don't think it exists. It's why I use it here. In defiance of it. Nothing is ordinary.
ABOUT ME
I am emerging, growing, evolving, becoming… just like you
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Architecture, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brooklyn NY
Fine Art Studies, The Barnstone Studios, Coplay PA
I studied psychology at Penn State University for two years before deciding the profession wasn't for me. I then temporarily quit college and took a job in an art supply warehouse so that I could study Fine Art in the evenings at a local private art school called The Barnstone Studios with a painter named Myron Barnstone. I learned the fundamentals of drawing, painting, color theory and composition with Myron. The rest of my fine art practice has been self-taught.
After a year within his studio, I went on to Pratt Institute where I matriculated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Since then, I've been working as an Architect and designer while maintaining a small fine art practice.
PRACTICE
In this practice, I make drawings, paintings and sculptures.
Most of my work is small in scale. You have to get close to it. Look at the detail of it. I like the intimacy of that. I do a lot of painting and drawing on paper. Paper is fragile. It wrinkles and tears easily when it’s wet. It warps, yellows and fades when it gets old. I like that. It reflects impermanence. It’s like life. Sometimes the scale of my work is bigger. Not often but sometimes. There is a different energy in the larger work. It’s broader and more physical. I like that too. Maybe I’ll do more large work in the future. I mostly use graphite, carbon and charcoal mixed with oil and acrylic paints. I often make my own brushes and marking tools from crushed sticks, bamboo, rags and paper. I sometimes use crayon, pastel and ink.
I enjoy using line, color and form to expresses motion, energy and fluidity. I paint on my drawings and draw on my paintings and find it hard to definitively separate these two techniques. I prefer to represent feelings and emotion rather than emulate realistic appearances. I'm mostly figurative and especially like drawing and painting people. My marks often overlap showing multiple versions of the same or nearly the same thing. We are in continual motion but we freeze it in drawings. We are the same, nearly the same and also not the same at all as time flows over us. The drawing marks are like a shorthand for words that don't exist to represent this phenomenon. Time is stopped in drawings.
My sculptures are made from found, discarded and broken objects which I re-purpose into assemblies where I explore the potential relationship and dialogue between elements and express how they are connected and constructed. Many of my sculptures work with the principles of tension, compression and friction and are often held together by these forces rather than using mechanical fasteners or glue.
I am deeply interested in communicating and expressing the imperfections, fragility and mystery of this human condition of which we all play a part.
I hope you enjoy my room full of 'ordinary' things.
