Artist Statement
All that glitters is not gold.
This quote is taken from a Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice, and is interpreted as the attractive external appearance of something, which is not a reliable indication of its true nature; that just because something glistens and shines, it does not necessarily mean it has value, or is attractive, or is beautiful, or necessarily good, or assumed bad. I am using this aphorism metaphorically to reference my use and choice of materials, which incorporates media that are precious looking, and all things shiny, but seemingly not valuable and more correctly, verge on kitsch. I tend to play with commercial art verses the fine arts, and incorporate meaning through the use of Western and Eastern ideas and symbology. In my artwork, I juxtapose these strategies via content dealing with fantasy, myth, dream, life and death, the unknown and the psyche, using references from authors like Haruki Murakami and Umberto Eco.
In working with these varied ideas and concepts, and appropriating from existing literature, I ask myself many questions: What is it that I have done? How will others view this? What is its value? Where is it taking me? Interested also in portraying time, Ilook at how I’ve used it, asking more questions: Am I spending time wisely here? How can I gain time? Where am I losing time? Is time used in a linear or cyclic way? How is time represented here? Asking myself questions like this, in dialogue with the work as it progresses, leads me into a kind of labyrinth of thought and dream.
Each piece allows me to explore this dream state more deeply, providing entrance into possible alternative realities, or fantasy worlds, or metaphoric fictions, and/or symbolic narratives. I attempt to make these mixed media paintings and drawings come alive. For me they form visual perceptions of multiple possibilities, paths and roads that can be taken, mazes and labyrinths that cause confusion, complex networks and puzzles that block the way, and many other conscious and unconscious sensibilities that are part of the life we all live, and definitely that which defines and elucidates the journey of my life.