My work is the continuing effort to reconcile the dichotomy of being both a long established Chicago based artist and also a sixth generation West Virginian from the besieged coalfields in deepest Appalachia. As I continually engage in innovative contemporary large-scale drawings and paintings a persistent undercurrent of my culture and heritage is forever present in the work I create. This fact has always endowed my work with a strange otherness no matter what direction it takes.
These new horizontal abstract paintings of chalk, charcoal, and acrylic on prepared canvas are constructed layer upon layer through the use of highly visible line work and areas of exposed raw canvas. Embracing an open-ended working process these very active paintings made with the simplest of media are bold contemplative works that have a vibrant and energetic space.
