When encircled by a poetry of lines and tones occurring harmoniously in nature, I feel awed and small in the enormous expanse. I see this space not only as a location, but an inspired idea awaiting translation. The concept of being part of something larger compels the ideas and intentions in my work.
While the Greek landscape filled with light and islands, the mid-Atlantic countryside I grew up in, and most recently, the cloud-filled mountains of Ecuador are the inspiration for my artwork, my hope is that the images themselves have become something more universal. My landscapes are paintings and prints meant to give a degree of ambiguity that allows them to provoke a sense of familiarity and calm without presenting a specific location. I am attempting to share my world and give an understanding that these lines, shapes, and subtleties of tone bring me a sense of calm, peace, and awe. I do not wish to offer social discourse; I am simply trying to express beauty.
Influences
I have found inspiration in various artists, all of whom have a particular poetry in line and composition that draws me to their work.
Japanese and Chinese woodblock prints, mainly landscape, have made me aware of the importance and weight of the simple line and the space that is not completely real. Many prints of the Art Nouveau period were also influenced by these Asian artists and attract me in a similar manner. The etchings of Rembrandt are an inspiration for their rich, dark accumulation of layered line in contrast to the ephemeral faint marks that go back into space. Andrew Wyeth’s landscapes have a heightened sense of reality that suggest abstraction in being almost too real. I am also attracted to the sense of space Wyeth creates and the composition of figures and curves. Late Gothic and early Renaissance paintings have a beautiful sense of poetry in the lines of garments and the curves of the groupings of figures. Specifically, it is Duccio’s use of line to follow the edges of his curving robes, Giovanni Belinni’s compositions of curves as his figure’s robes and arms line up throughout the paintings, and Botticelli’s distortion of the human figure to create a more beautiful line that serve as clear inspiration for my work.
On the whole, the work that I am most attracted to and inspired by is filled with a sense of calm and beauty in line and form.