Artist Statement. The complexities of current socio-political events inspire me to combine images from disparate sources to address the use of violence by humans to solve geo-political conflicts. My paintings are a ‘layered’ contemplation of violence dealing with the sublime interrelation of time and space.
In today’s informational age global news of violence reach us by a click of a button: creating a network of virtual simulations coupled with fear despite being far removed from actuality.
I am interested in gathering in visual form the spectacle of information, of knowledge and of subjectivity. My process involves combining commercial iconography, signage, symbols and text with imagery often associated with violence. Through bi-association of commercial and tragic imagery I present the relationship between sustenance and decadence, and also between life and death. Human and animal body parts are often combined with man-made objects, sometimes morphing into unexpected mutations. Such parallels reveal the interconnectedness of life, death and the inanimate in addition to the juxtaposition of humor and tragedy exposing the contradictions of reality. My objective is to draw attention through painting and performance art to the visceral relationships between seemingly unrelated objects; to intensify the tension between comparative forms; and to blur distinctions between the familiar and the novel.
