One of the few constants in my work is the presence of tension that I use as a metaphor for how I see the world. Like many artists, I don’t evoke it. Tension just appears in the process.

My pieces often convey something that’s not quite right. Whether almost tipping over, almost pulled apart, almost hidden, or almost cut off, I try taking something perhaps familiar and tilting it just enough to make the viewer wonder or question.

Poet and critic Allen Tate is said to have seen tension as the necessary ingredient to complete a work. For example, he might use literal and metaphorical meanings together. The existence of both created conflict, and for him, this gave the work meaning.

My combinations are more elemental. But I agree with Tate. When tension appears, I know I’ve succeeded.

Just a few of the works of tension I admire include Cézanne’s apples, Van Gogh’s chair and pipe, Egon Schiele’s landscapes, Willem de Kooning’s woman, Eric Fischl’s barbecue, and Anselm Kiefer’s forests. Plus more subtle works by Louisa Matthíasdóttir, Alex Katz, Richard Diebenkorn, Lois Dodd, Maureen Gallace, and Allison Gildersleeve.

 

Notable Exhibitions

• 2018, Blurring The Boundaries: Abstractions In Colorado, Arts Longmont Gallery, Longmont, Colorado. Juried by Collin Parson, Director of Galleries and Curator at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Painting: Urbanity
• 2016, Art of the State, Arvada, Colorado. Juried by Gwen Chanzit, Curator of Modern Art at the Denver Art Museum; Michael Chavez, Program Manager at Denver Public Art; and Collin Parson, Curator at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Sculpture: Bombast
• 2015, ART & SOUL, biennial exhibition, Space Gallery, Denver, Colorado. Juried by Dr. Christoph Heinrich, Director of the Denver Art Museum. Sculpture: Bombast
• 2014, Unfinished, invitational exhibit, Pattern Shop Studio, Denver, Colorado. Collage: Reverse Black and White
• 2014, 4th Annual Art and Earth exhibition, Berkeley Arts Council, Martinsburg, West Virginia. Juried by Lauren Schell Dickens, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  Painting: Urbanity