When I embark on a painting I have little preconceived notion about the content, though there may be the common theme of duality present; darkness and light, new and old, life and death. Instead, I give myself over to beauty; color, harmony, balance…inspired by some tangible thing that gives rise to the intangible, that I in turn attempt to make sense of in the form of pigment on panel. Brush to canvas and the search for meaning ensues, or perhaps as I open myself up to the creative process, the meaning finds me, a conduit for the thought to be made visible to the world. This is the purpose of the visual artist. With my painting, Promise, the color harmony and balance as inspiration are obvious, but underlying these formal elements is a story about the promise of youth and beauty. Behind a young women are seed packets, representing potential, still hanging on the wall while she faces toward the dark recess of the garden shed. She averts her gaze, stoically denying the inevitability of the future, staying instead in the present, unmoving, yet quiescent, like a seed.
