statement

I have always been drawn to the human body. The sensual nature of it, it's strength and it's frailty. The portrait and the "nude portrait", as Lucien Freud coined,  have been of keen interest to me since I can remember my first life drawing class back in Calgary Alberta. In recent years, I have confronted the traditional notion of what portraiture is. The idea of creating a painting of a person in the same configuration in a series of days has its own merit or worth. However, if the body is in a constant state of change and movement, even when visibly 'still', then why not allow the nude portrait to convey this change? Much like the cubists conceived of conveying the 3 dimensional vantage point on a 2 dimensional plane, what if we conveyed the figure in its spiritual and emotional evolution through the vehicle of gesture and the life force?

As much as we build, we deconstruct. I discovered, that in teaching drawing,  I have spent much time teaching how we build. Building obviously being a vital part of the creative process  is important, but through teaching I have discovered I had lost the deconstructive element in my own work. Willem DeKooning was known to sand paintings at intervals to knock the painting back in order to rebuild. It can help destroy the overly sweet and saccharine. This deconstructive component adds texture, grit and a sense of history. When we shower, we are literally removing dead cells from the body. Our body is a temporary vessel. Energy moves and transforms.

bio

born: 1967, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada

education

Diploma Visual Communications, Alberta College Of Art, Calgary, Canada, 1989

MFA Illustration, School Of Visual Arts, New York, New York, 1991

selected publications

American Artist Drawing Magazine, Winter Issue, 2007  

selected solo or two-person exhibits

EXCAVATION, Oglethorpe Gallery, Savannah, Georgia,  2012

selected group shows

About Face, Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs, Savannah, Georgia, 2013

NUDE 4, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2012

Drawing Disclosure, University of North Carolina, Ashville, North Carolina, 2010

In The Flesh II, Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, Virginia,  2009