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ARTIST’S STATEMENT

 
 

These paintings represent mostly work since 2013. Stylistically, the paintings range from full figuration to full abstraction, depending on the series I am working on. Some concentrate on the theme of transformation, evoking associations with mythology, metaphysics, and the idea of journey. Others focus on generally smaller abstract and semi-figurative paintings that always seem to suggest a narrative of some kind, while still others focus on the human figure, often paired, sometimes isolated in a crowd.

For over 20 years, I taught creative writing, literature, and classics full time at Langara College and contemporary art part-time at Emily Carr University. I now work full time in the visual arts and writing.

The subjects of these paintings have to do with the interrelationships of the personal, the social, and the archetypal. My goal with the paintings is to create enough interplay of elements that the viewer keeps discovering new things. There is a good deal of layered information created through a process of drawing, underpainting, collage of my drawings, brushwork with acrylics and oils, and oilstick.

Natural patterns and archetypal forms surround us in the same way that waking and dreaming co-mingle. Each painting is a cross-section of journeys undertaken by both animate and inanimate forms that cohere momentarily in some question. As in, here I am at a city intersection: Why am I really here? Where am I going? Why does it seem uncommonly familiar? Questions not as in my-memory-is-shot, but more in the sense that our routine activities can suddenly seem unfamiliar and connected to bigger issues.

At the same time, I just enjoy the act of painting, the act of creating with no-mind. 

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Bee-Lines

Bee-Lines

View fullsize "Tree of Life Dreaming about Humans." Acrylic, oil, oil stick, pen, crystal fragments, photo fragments, on canvas. 36" x 36". 2022. #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart
View fullsize In the Forests of the Night. Acrylic, oil stick, pen, on canvas. 24" x 36". 2022 #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #interiordesigner, #artcurator, #newcanadianart, #artcollect
View fullsize "Antidote Series: #1". Acrylic, pen, oil stick, on canvas. 18" x24". 2022. #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #interiordesigner, #artcurator, #newcanadianart, #artco
View fullsize "Lean on Me." Acrylic & oil stick on canvas. 24" x 36". 2022. One of the Northwest Coast series on forests. #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #interiordesigner,
View fullsize "Forest Conversation: Earth, Air, Fire, Water." acrylic, oil, oil stick, pen, on canvas. 36" x 48". 2022. #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #interiordesigner, #art
View fullsize "The Music a Forest Makes". Acrylic, oil stick, pen, on canvas. 24" x 36". 2022 #abstractart, #expressionistart, #newconceptualart, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #Interiordesigner, #artcurator, #artcollector, #artforsa
View fullsize "Dreaming of Landscape". Acrylic, oil stick, pen, on canvas. 26" x 26" #abstractart, #expressinistart, #newconceptualpainting, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #artcurator, #interiordesigner, #artcollector
View fullsize "The Vividness of Seeds in Darkness". Acrylic, oil stick, pen, on canvas. 18" x 42". #abstractart, #expressionistart, #conceptualpainting, #interiordesigner, #gibsonsart, #vancouverart, #montrealart, #artcurator, #artcollector