1: Brushes (Response to Jim Dine) –November 2011; Charcoal on paper 10’’X14''

The assignment was to create a charcoal drawing of 2-4 tools with dramatic lighting, responding to Jim Dine’s various tool prints. I had seen an image somewhere of one of his prints that had five paintbrushes hanging on a wall. I decided to use a similar subject for my drawing, and took a photograph of four brushes under dramatic lighting to reference.

2: Tool (Response to Jim Dine) –October 2011; Ebony pencil on paper 9''X12''

The assignment was to create a pencil drawing of one tool with dramatic lighting, responding to Jim Dine’s various tool prints. I had seen an image somewhere of one of his prints that had a wrench. I decided to use a similar subject for my drawing, and took a photograph of the plier under dramatic lighting to reference.

3: Plates –October 2011; digital photograph

The assignment was to take a photograph of the contents of my kitchen cabinet. I chose the section between two stacks of plates, as they initially appear to be ambiguous due to the offset lines. The process of taking the photograph became a study of light.

4: Velocity –October 2011; digital photograph

The assignment was Velocity. I was debating between a large scale un-stretched canvas on which I would run around on with painted feet, and shooting a few rolls of film without looking through the viewfinder, simply practicing to obtain a constant velocity of art making, rather than being knit-picky over fine details. Neither was “clicking” in my mind. Later, my friends and I were playing around with spray paint on the walls of my garage when it hit me: there is a definite velocity of paint atoms as they are sprayed onto a surface. I crouched down with my bridge camera and snapped a picture, almost sacrificing the lens, and captured the paint while in motion.

5: Cement –September 2011; digital photograph

I was walking around Minneapolis in mid fall. The foot and bicycle prints seemed to be accidental. It made me think about how many people use the sidewalk and are absent to all future users, as they slowly vanish with each new step. But, on some particular day, these prints were recorded permanently into the wet cement and are now visible to all future sidewalk users. It allows each individual who passes to invisibly meet these two strangers with a semi-interaction.

6: Sunflower –May 2011; Acrylic on canvas 18’’X20’'

The assignment was an Extension of a Landscape. I was driving through Vermont with my parents on the way to visit my brother when we passed a field of dead sunflowers. Each stem was standing strong, however the heads of the flowers were flopped over dead, as if they were snapped at the conjunction of the stem and blossom. I wanted to convey this site with a lot of open space to parallel the vacant roads in the mountains of Vermont.

7: 3-3-1 –April 2011; Acrylic on paper 15’’X22’’

The project was the 3-3-1 project: three lines, three days, one painting. The lines came from any chosen figure study. After day one, I was unsatisfied with the piece. Day two I decided to glob on as much paint as possible, hiding the previous day’s work. I realized that this not only looked sloppy, but also would seriously warp the paper. So, I began to scrape off the paint with a plastic pallet knife in all directions. I found the newly discovered technique to be effective, so I continued to glob on paint in other areas and scrape it off, discovering new textures with each movement.

8: Orange –April 2011; Oil and glitter on canvas 8’’X8’'

Every year I try and make a very small painting of a fruit. I’m not entirely sure how it started, but it has become a tradition for me each spring as my last painting before the exhibition at Studio Seven. This is the most recent one out of seven.

9: Big Painting -April 2011; Acrylic on canvas 4’X4’

The assignment was simply to make use of a large canvas. I chose to paint from a picture that I took in a co-worker’s friend’s house. The painting is about how the perceptions of trust and boundaries are often obscured with teenagers. It is about trying to understand the chemistry between people in seemingly harmless situations, such as hanging out in a large group of people, and only knowing one other out of ten. Even though people are physically together- living, breathing, experiencing- they are unable to fully comprehend their place in the group, as there has been no time to gain any sort of trust. The painting is supposed to look simple at first glance, but with time become more and more complex as its surrealism and ambiguity begin to surface, such as making sense of the blind group dynamic.


Installation View: The Blake School Board of Trustees’ conference room

10: The Last Pose is the Hardest –March 2011; Acrylic on newsprint 18''X24''

I was getting bored at the end of a two-hour figure studies session, towards the end of the last twenty-minute pose. I decided to write “The Last Pose is the Hardest” on the piece, sort of justifying the frustration of my attention waning. When I re-visited the piece a few days later, I found that it reflected a spirit inside of me that contrasted the seriousness and control that I started the session with, revealing a more natural art practice.

11: Look Up and Absorb the Universe –March 2011; Acrylic on newsprint 18''X24''

The model looked at peace, as if she were lying in a field somewhere under an open sky. I believed that she was in a sort of meditation, allowing the earth to speak to her.

12: Untitled (Figure Studies) –February 2011; Acrylic on newsprint 18''X24''

I find this figure study to be particularly successful in many ways: color, proportions, and lighting, all while keeping the free spirit of a quick pose.