Artist's Statement 2009
These paintings are part of a new series of work where I explore the intersection of figurative and abstract painting through the experience we all share of inhabiting bodies that are looked at by both ourselves and others.
For me ‘to see’ is always to see from a body that is both an object for others and a subject for myself - a unity that is both implicit and vague at the same time. Most of us experience this feeling when confronted with a mirror. We see before us not an object, but an intertwining of vision, movement and object that somehow we animate. This intertwining is, i believe, where abstract and figurative meet.
In this work I photograph staged scenes where I place myself in relation to distorted mirror images. I then paint these photographs as accurately as possible in line with the figurative tradition. The resulting work, which attempts to remain true to figurative accuracy, has the strange quality of being both abstract and figurative at the same time.
These paintings are part of a new series of work where I explore the intersection of figurative and abstract painting through the experience we all share of inhabiting bodies that are looked at by both ourselves and others.
For me ‘to see’ is always to see from a body that is both an object for others and a subject for myself - a unity that is both implicit and vague at the same time. Most of us experience this feeling when confronted with a mirror. We see before us not an object, but an intertwining of vision, movement and object that somehow we animate. This intertwining is, i believe, where abstract and figurative meet.
In this work I photograph staged scenes where I place myself in relation to distorted mirror images. I then paint these photographs as accurately as possible in line with the figurative tradition. The resulting work, which attempts to remain true to figurative accuracy, has the strange quality of being both abstract and figurative at the same time.
