shadows

This body of work was inspired by the shapes and patterns created by tree shadows. Trees are common motifs in literature, art and film, used to represent the passage of time and phases of life. Yet, while trees do change dramatically over the course of a few months, their shadows change from moment to moment with the wind, the clouds, and the time of day. Shadows change constantly, they are never the same, representing change better than the trees themselves.

Shadows is not a collection of paintings, but a single representation of the many streams of experience in my life, either memories as I lived them or what I was going through at the time the painting was being executed.

The patterns and colors of manipulated images convey the intangible emotions behind an event. Yet all significant passages in life evoke many emotions, leaving the painting to express perhaps just one facet of them. Thus the hues express the feeling of a specific point within the experience.

Some of the larger paintings view experiences from a more distant, more macro perspective. These works are reflections on an event and its effect upon me. Sometimes I have felt that the emotions surrounding an experience become blurred and less tangible as the experience itself becomes clearer and less subjective. The objectification of these experiences occurs with the passing of time. Some moments within each memory are recalled with great clarity. That specific moment is represented by the floating windows, niches, objects, or lights.

I want to impress the importance of absorbing the moment, absorbing life as we live it instead of longing for the future beyond the horizon, or looking to the past. One of my main goals for the shadow paintings is to create a body of work that is simple and at times quiet. A place in which the viewer can get lost.