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Weltanschaaung

I began this work with a series of sketches I did in the spirit of the Surrealist practice of "automatic" drawing, an intuitive and uncensored method of creative expression. After continuing to draw in this way for several weeks, repeated themes and imagery began to emerge and topics of personal concern revealed themselves. The major themes reflected in this work refer to the human condition and reflect my feelings and thoughts on such topics as war and aggression; poverty; consumerism; pollution; scientific and technological advancements; energy resource depletion; and our precarious relationship to nature and to each other.

The figures in my work represent all of mankind, and are for the most part, are presented with an ambiguity of gender for this reason. Within the same painting, I combine a mixture of line work and graphic treatment with areas that are highly rendered. This treatment symbolizes a world out of balance and in disharmony. The smooth substrate, curved edges, gentle floating relationship to the wall and Haiku titles reflect a delicate, soft spoken expression in juxtaposition to the disturbing content.

As I look at the human condition - in the past, over time and in the present - I question the direction in which we are headed. Through the journey of creating this body of work I have found myself experiencing some deep existential questioning. It is my sense that mother nature is on the verge of unleashing a powerful instructive blow if we fail to learn from our mistakes, take responsibility for our errors and do what is right for the earth and for each other. It seems we are living in concurrent dystopian and utopian times, and I am anxious about the ultimate balance between these scenarios. My artwork is an expression of the fragility of life and an anxiety born out of a creeping communal and personal sense of malaise - a whispered angst with a yearning for transformation.

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