“I’ve given up the idea of perfectionism, for if my work were perfect there would be no room for improvement.”
Statement:
Working abstractly with no preconceived intention allows for intuition to guide my process, freeing me from forcing the outcome. It also invites unpredictable and unique marks which cannot be contrived.
I paint in a series, and the paintings evolve very naturally as a family, each one informing the others.
When I start a new series, I let myself be playful. I have fun experimenting with colours and mark making, knowing that as I add layer upon layer, the piece will begin to tell me what it wants.
My process of art making is one of push-pull, confusion-clarity, wreck-refine, call-response. I go between childlike impulse to thoughtful clarifying again and again until I feel the painting is resolved and that I have nothing more to add.
The more I work in this way, the more I trust the process. As I get more involved with a piece, something will drop into my mind that steers me to a particular direction, and if it feels exciting to me, I follow that intuition without question.
Once committed to doing what feels good in my painting, I get ideas and inspirations about what it means to me. By the time the series is finished, I feel an obvious connection with the paintings and the metaphor associated with them.