In this current series of work, I continue my exploration of our individual relationship to our society; society’s relationship to the planet and to time; and our lack of perspective to the world around us. We all, but Americans especially, live in the moment. Not looking back at our predecessors, not looking forward beyond a few years. We rarely want to ponder our relationship to time and how all societies have a rise and a fall… including ours. These works represent items left behind by people from a previous time and serve to remind us that they were not so different from us and that one day, we will be viewed by future inhabitance of this planet in the same way that we now view out predecessors. These paintings serve as a reminder of the inexistence of permanence. Archeologists dig up various items from antiquity and search for a meaning. Most of these pieces have a long forgotten language or design on them that at one time held a significant importance to the owner. We are still pondering the meaning of Stonehenge, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Mayan pictograph writings. How long until our possessions are scrutinized in the same way? Fast-forward to the present time. You and I and everyone we know have stuff. A lot of stuff. One day, when we’re gone, all that stuff, as all stuff before it has done, will go in the ground. Some of it holds importance to you like your cellphone or your car or the ashtray your daughter made when she was 5. Our society has stuff that we all hold dear and sacred like our statues, monuments, and iconic buildings. It will all be left and forgotten, their purpose and significance lost to time, until some future archeologist from some future civilization digs it up and ponders it’s meaning. The impetus for this series of paintings was the use of three-dimensional patters on the surface. I have utilized three-dimensionality before in my works. I have attached found objects like bottle caps, screws, and fabric directly to the canvas or panel. More recently I have been building up the surface with thick paint, adding random texture, letting that paint dry, then allowing thinned paint to drip through and settle into valleys and crevasse left in the impasto. By adding the designs and patterns, I have added a human element to the works indicating that they have been man made and carry significance to those who can recognize and read the patterns. The aged patina created by the dripped and pooled washes of paint conjure ideas of a found object recently unearthed, ready to tell an ancient story to those who will listen.
