COVID Driveway Paintings - 2023

This group of paintings is a meditative construct, inviting a loss of self, an escape, not only to the formal process, but also into the transcendent experience of nature. 

Began after illness and while sheltering in place- quarantined during the pandemic. They were painted at the very edge of my land, at the end of my driveway, as if I were hitting an invisible force field or like a dog confined by an invisible fence. Held back only by my fear of COVID, I found it oddly amusing, painting in every direction as far as my leash would allow—losing myself to my work.

Rooted in perceptual observation and focus on the simplicity and honesty of pure painting—it is an austere aesthetic that reveres the raw and random elements of nature and the artistic process, embracing imperfection as inherent to the human experience. Drawing inspiration from the garden and landscape, as if playing a jazz standard, my paintings allow for spontaneous exploration, improvisation, and virtuoso performance. By exploiting relationships, accidents, and opportunities for abstraction, they convey a political stance of sorts—a romantic embrace of nature juxtaposed with a quiet rebellion against artifice and self-importance.