My current creative process investigates the precarious balance between the beauty of our natural world and hidden threats to our existence. Specifically, the content of my paintings includes references to unchecked chemical use, endangered species, environmental mismanagement and various related pathogens. They contain a deliberate visual density that is symbolic of the profound persistence of nature, as well as a confusion of how to protect it from harm.
The threats are represented through molecular formulae of pesticides, herbicides and problematic treatments for disease; aggressive non-native vegetation; and ultimately, disease itself. Because these dangers are in themselves very beautiful, they provide a strange, duplicitous seduction. The paintings additionally represent a personal investment with issues of illness and wellbeing. Ultimately, the recent work is about the health of self, as well as the health of our ecological existence—an undeniable, yet often under-recognized, symbiosis.
This group of works on paper, created in Paris at La Cite Internationale des Arts, became a very poignant example of this symbiosis. They were, unfortunately, the result of being violently mugged at the entrance of the residency, two weeks into my stay. Determined to continue to work, I initially began with an effort to draw my largest bruise, which had a very angular shape on my skin. After drawing this almost obsessively, I realized I was creating images that were akin to strip mining. I found that making images about the scarring of the earth was a helpful metaphor for healing from my own wounds.
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