How did you
become a designer/artist?
I've always drawn alot, and always been fascinated
with painting and sculpture, but it wasn't until
I was about 19 that I made a commitment to study
art, to earn a BFA. I studied illustration for
a couple years, realized I had no interest, and
threw myself into painting. I realized that painting
to me was all about mystery, and that pre-verbal
evocative quality that painting has; just the
opposite of spelling everything out, telling a
clear story, which is what illustration is all
about. I haven't looked back, except to laugh.
Painting's been the center of my life for probably
six or seven years now. I've been lucky; I am
doing exactly the work I want to do at any given
time, and people have been responding to it.
Where are you from originally?
I'm a Bay Area native, born and raised in San
Jose, CA, and I've lived here in San Francisco
for the last nine years. All my family is on the
East Coast, so I feel a connection to New England
and North Carolina. My ancestry is Dutch, and
I'd like to spend more time in Holland in the
future; I was just there over the summer.
What are you doing now?
Right now I am painting full time, and trying
to both deepen and expand existing bodies of work.
More medium to large scale minimal landscapes,
trying to bring several bodies of work closer
together, and distill what's important from the
images I keep revisiting. Working slowly, and
deliberately, with many layers. I'm working on
a diptych, a painting of my family that I am excited
about. Teaching a little bit.
What are your plans for the future?
To continue to paint, and perhaps to teach at
the college level. That's a little more long term,
though. I am finishing up work for a solo exhibit
here at San Francisco's 66 Balmy Gallery, entitled
"Small Fires in the Distance". That
will be in November of 2005. Also I'll be having
a solo show, likely a sort of survey of various
works, at Boston's MPG Contemporary, in March
2006. I'd like to make a book or two of my work;
that's a more lasting way of showing the work
to people than a three-week exhibit, and more
broadly affordable. I intend to get back into
doing some more figurative works. I'll probably
focus on that in about a month. I'll be doing
a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, which
is pretty exciting. Beyond that, I can't see the
future so it can be hard to talk about.
What American artist inspires you most?
To pick only one is hard but it has to Andrew
Wyeth. His work is just incredible, totally suffused
with patience and feeling. Some of my other favorite
contemporary painters are Sophie Jodoin, Alex
Kanevsky, Stuart Shils, and Antonio Lopez Garcia.
And of course all my friends here in the Bay Area,
too many to mention.
What unlocks your creativity?
Nature, first and foremost. Light and space. Keeping
my eyes open. Music. |
