05/11/09

My paintings investigate sites loaded with residual energy: landscapes, buildings and figures stained by the Bay Area's history of diverse populations intertwining amid extreme conditions of great plenty and disaster; utopian movements and violent rebellions. I am examining the trace of groups of people claiming and making use of public space. The process of painting is one of deep reflection: finding the contours and edges of the figure through the movement of my hand and the paint; recording a gesture which responds to the underlying history of a figure and its position in the landscape. I begin these watercolors by painting a freehand outline of the silhouette, which is immediately flooded with a faint wash. I then float small amounts of pigment, mixed to a neutral tone, into the wash to establish darker values. As the paper dries, the pigments separate, building up at the edge of the contour to sharpen the boundary between the trace and the paper. The buckling of the paper in response to the image functions as a metaphor for the impact the events have had on the actual physical sites.