Artist’s Statement

I am interested in the irony of creating a deep space and/or a monumental scale within a very small area.  This paradox of a diminutive realm encourages the viewer to leave the everyday world behind.

The figurative images illustrate power relationships within the world of the particular painting. To keep the diminutive scenes open for the viewer to “enter,” the figures don’t occupy the spaces but appear in pictures on the walls, floors or tabletops.  These images of figures are in dialogue with the domestic interiors they inhabit, each adding to the story of the other.

A power relationship also exists between the viewer and my paintings.  The brilliant color and intricate detail seduces, and invites intimacy with the painting.  The size relationship between the viewer’s body and the small scale of the painting allows the viewer physical dominance over the painting as an object, while a low perspective contradicts this supremacy, persuading the viewer to be submissive to the image.  This physical/psychological tension is an additional irony; the heart of what holds the viewer’s attention, questioning the viewer’s power and their very physicality.