I’m always looking for a moody atmosphere, to elicit some sort of emotional response from the viewer with these paintings shrouded in darkness with hints of light. The sky often plays a significant role in these compositions, and the ability of low light to illuminate “just enough” in your mind’s eye is something holy and beautiful to me — to be able to hint at a whole that is yet unseen.
I’m inspired by a group of photographers that excel in manipulating light and, in particular, pursuing how minimal amounts light afford us to see everyday and even mundane things in new ways. As a writer by trade, I see every painting as a tiny scene in a larger narrative — one in which the viewer is pulled into the story and afforded the opportunity to own the narrative on their terms and personalize it. That’s the moody, emotional connection I aspire to: to invite a viewer into something that awakens nostalgia, a memory, a moment, and perhaps relive it or rewrite it altogether.
