Artist Statement
Adaptation
Adaptation is the 3rd series in a trilogy of work (with Watershed 2017 and The Meaning of Things 2015) that map the trajectory of my process as it has moved from representation into abstraction. My practice investigates human geography and this recent work continues to navigate within the context of landscape.
This trilogy was produced during the period surrounding the death of my son and I consider it to be a kind of requiem.
HISTORY
My son, Gabe, had a way of emanating peace from his skin, like steam. He was an evolved person, in that he was pure in thought and heart. He was vulnerable and his daily survival required a lot of support, so he was often viewed through the lens of disability. He cannot be said to have lived with disability because he had no measurement of normalcy. Gabe lived with restricted access, and so did I by association with him.
The lived experience of systemic barriers shaped my painting practice. It is a particular vantage point that reveals the underlying institutions that control social behavior. I used this awareness, of that which is ‘hidden in plain view’, as a tool for bringing forward the significant issues affecting the landscape.
The experience of penetrating space, is the main motivation for my painting practice. If Space can be created through a wall, it feels like freedom. The surface of the canvas becomes a membrane between dimensions.
The most obvious way to do this is through the technical means of perspective. But this only lets you depict an illusion of 3D space. The process for accessing living, breathing space is more elusive and there are no formulas or rules to make it happen; it is alive and must be made up from scratch every time. My methodology is not concerned with technical skills, but instead with increasing my ability to be present, in the space, in order to paint the experience of being there, not merely how things look.