My work revolves around the concept of tension and its relationship to the viewer through emotive and formal elements. Growing up in a carpenter’s shop in Houston, Texas has given me a great respect and ultimately a longing to create and work with my hands. Printmaking and drawing satisfy this craving for tactile connection and allows me to work through ideas naturally.
I strive to connect with something universal in my work; drawing on concepts and imagery that people on a fundamental level, can understand and relate to. This series of drawings revolves around a larger theme I have been focusing on relating to human struggle and tension within ourselves and our environments. The concept of tension explored in these works brings out the viewer’s own history with struggle, tension and balance. The size of these drawings reflects the human scale, and allows for gestures and mark making, that both feel and look natural.
The constructed elements in these drawings can be read as formal solutions to aesthetic problems, mainly in weight and balance and figure ground relationships. I aim to bring the viewer into the work by creating an ambiguity within the image and allowing objects to emerge and recede into the space implied on the page. This mystery is what keeps us seeking and engaged as a viewer, allowing us to discover and come back to the drawing with new eyes.