Artist Statement
Many of my drawings begin with a gift. Something found or handed to me. Maps of places traveled by others. Nautical charts and topographical maps given to me by friends. All previously used that come with their own history. Other points of departure for my drawings might be a piece of paper found in an old book that contains the owner’s doodles or the elegant handwriting in a personal letter. In both cases the marks, the age of the paper, slight rips or tears bear witness to a past unknown to me. I enjoy excavating through those marks, setting off on a new path - a new visual adventure. These pieces of paper, with their own history, become the starting point for images that define my relationships – to the people and places in my life.
In all my work, nature is the vehicle for telling stories. What intrigues me is pondering a world of which I am a part, but largely ignorant to its inner workings. I wonder about the comings and goings of birds and beasts in the night, while I sleep, and wake on snowy mornings to read footprints left in the yard – a tale of who passed by. I begin to dream up narratives of those seen and unseen. I hypothesize, and I fall in love with the idea that the wild world around me is filled with accounts of the unseen. That is my starting point for visual storytelling.
In the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer when we “listen in wild places, we are audience to a conversation in a language not our own.” While in Ithaca, NY, my spouse, Meg, and I lived in three places: first on Bebee Lake, then Cayuga Lake and finally on two acres of wooded land. All of which felt like wild places and were filled with languages both foreign and beautiful. Listening in places like these sparks joy. Listening in wild places fills me with wonder, and telling visual stories about how we relate to them and to those we live with I hope sparks joy and wonder in others.
Glossary of Terms:
Birds
Worship-worthy, feather-bearing, winged beings, most of which fly. With abilities to sing in harmony with themselves, move by the millions in murmuration as a single entity and traverse hemispheres guided by stars, they are what humans would be if they could.
From J. Drew Lanham, Sparrow Envy
Beasts
Non-feathered wanderers of beautiful places. Who sees me before I see them. Who dart across the road at dusk and move quietly through impossibly thick woods. Guided by an inner compass and reasoning all their own.
Dreamer
Ponderer of new possibilities. Also...me.