Artist’s Statement

In my mind, art achieves its most valuable service when it inspires an audience to feel an intimate connection with the world beyond the self or encourages the viewer to contemplate the morality of their own way of life.

Revealing the remarkable textures of life

In modern society, we are often so busy living our own lives and striving to reach our own dreams that we fail to consider that we are part of a bigger picture. At the same time, our lifestyles are often defined by our subconscious adherence to the ideologies of our time; ideologies shaped by the norms of society, and political and corporate interests. Our unchecked adherence to these systems of ideas and ideals can enable us to lead “normal” lives blinded to the reality of our negative impact on the world at large. In so doing, we may support a lifestyle in which people, wildlife, and wild places in other corners of the globe suffer tragically.

Many of us understand the consequences of our lifestyle on the environment, but we are ingrained in our ways. If the environmental troubles of the world are not immediately before us, we adopt an air of indifference and passivity.

The writer, Viktor Shklovsky remarked, “Art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony.”

I believe that our hesitation to change our ways stems from a loss of appreciation for the natural world. We have somehow come to see the tantalizing and ever-changing extravagances of the modern, material kingdom as far more exciting than the “simple,” unwavering beauty of nature. However, the innumerable delights and luxuries of the material world can tarnish the quality of our own lives. As many people have remarked, we are so busy trying to experience everything, that we no longer feel the entire substance of anything. And all too often, our encounters with the animate realm occur through the inanimate window of technology. So, the stone loses its texture and the rose its fragrance.

The overarching theme of my artwork is Drawing for Change. Through art, I seek to illustrate the ineffable and inimitable beauty of wildlife and wild places. It’s my attempt “to make the stone stony.” In so doing, I hope to encourage the audience to rediscover the connection we had with nature before we lost ourselves in the frenzy of the material world. Reestablishing this connection is imperative for developing effective measures for environmental protection and the creation of a sustainable way of life on this Earth.