b. 1963 Ontario, Canada. 

Resides in Montreal, Quebec since 1988

 

Every painting is a proposal carrying an argument for its own existence. I attempt as much as possible to attend to the accidental in a painting, and lean on its physicality in order to bring it to a certain pitch of evocation, where it begins to assert its independent existence as an object - and hopefully something worthy of contemplation.


An overall composition hemmed in by external parameters – the neutral dimension, the scale matching the studio setup - help form an arena where sensory events can be more easily coaxed out, and leaves me a kind of parallel personal narrative in physical form. They evoke past events, seascapes, quasi-religious ponderings, physical and psychic ailments: anything that might have missed scrutiny in day-to-day living.


It’s a layer-by-layer approach, and as an act demands a certain wilful nakedness of intent. Each layer applied is a question requiring an answer: if the answer is incomplete or wanting, a rephrased question emerges, demanding a modified or more nuanced answer. At a certain point, an unsteady completion emerges which inevitably alludes to the stuff I recognize underlying my own life. It’s a lazy man’s meditation, where the act itself is a shadow-play of life and the resulting dialogue can be corralled and contemplated at a distance.


A brush, oil paint and canvas seem to be the best tools for me to find and coax out what ends up being an even field of emerging imagery. Traditional methods keep my body closely involved with the surface and allows space for art history – as well as my own predilections - to enter into the mix: a constant, active engagement with drawing on a surface is the point at which I find the most empathy with past painters.