My paintings are embedded with information that teeter on visual overload.  It is this repeated overlay of images that create a complex illusionary space that neither resides comfortably in realism nor abstraction.  My goal is to produce a manipulated world that is both inviting and mysterious.  The paintings are a visual way of organizing the information overload that has evolved into our daily lives.

Eastern art, and specifically Oriental brush paintings and wood-cuts, have had a strong impact on the way I compose landscapes which are overlaid with geometric and architectural elements.  These become metaphors for structuring the past, and reflect the way in which modern society has structured the original natural terrain. 

I am interested in the cross-cultural power of symbols which have the ability to transcend language.  Symbols are typically a pictorial form of communication and therefore have more potential to be a universal language.  We live in a sign, symbol, and ad-oriented society and we are constantly bombarded with information from around the world.  But is this excess creating a further disjuncture between humans and the world we inhabit? 

There is always a separation in making art.  I’ve been using the term ‘veil’ to explain this idea of separation.  Until recently I had never seen an actual Asian landscape except in books or other paintings; my entire experience of these landscapes had been mediated through interpretation or reproduction.  In today’s world there is always a mediator.  Humans experience nature through television or in photographs, and the internet allows for an easy access of information.  However nothing encountered through these sources is a first hand experience.  The question is, exactly how removed is today’s society from experiencing reality?

I am inspired by ideas of manipulated worlds, worlds composed by a personal language of signs and symbols, using architectural imagery to exhibit ideas of globalization and power.  I want my paintings to be of a language that transcends the restrictions of the real world and hovers within the world of illusion where these restrictions do not exist.  The only way to reach this “utopia,” as painter Benjamin Edwards refers to is, is through analyzing the natural world and its relationship with the created world of technology and cyberspace.  My paintings are intended to create a merger of the past and present, the natural and manipulated, and the concrete and abstract in an emblematic landscape.