Big Views, Small Objects

I love research. You might think that my artwork is the outcome of the research I do, and some of it is. But most of the time, the paintings and drawings, along with the research, are part of a larger process. The images I make don’t always show what I’m learning in an explicit way. I take in information, and I work out my ideas about the information by writing, drawing and painting. Maybe I eventually do an installation or other body of work that is a culmination of the ideas. But the process-work, the pieces that happen along the way, are dynamic because they are open ended. And they are open ended because I’m learning. These are the pieces that show me grasping to understand. Often, I don’t know what I’ve learned until I see a body of work together. Just like it is hard to see a painting as a whole until you can step away from it.

Placing the expected scenic views of the Maine coast in the background, is similar, for me, to putting preconceived ideas and expectations aside to better understand physical realities and systems. In this way, my process has some similarity to science. In art as in science, it is important to be aware of our expectations so we can put them aside in order to be open to what emerges. But while science is concerned with physical data, I am interested in the metaphors we use, and the way the things we pay attention to, create our understanding of the world.