Using acrylic and oil paints, inks, and brightly colored fabric, I assemble pieces of canvas and cloth to transform interesting linear forms into colorful images. My current series of paintings explore houses, mobile homes, searchlights, and house-hold appliances. I have also painted series looking at satellite-view maps of interstate highways, the solar system, and the lush plant life here in Alabama.
I look for contrasts. I like the juxtaposition of candy-colored paint and industrial or utilitarian objects, and I like topics that contain inherent contrasts. For example: freeway interchanges can be rough, risky, frustrating; yet we instinctively know how beautiful they are - graceful loops, full of branching possibilities. Military jets also have that dichotomy of harsh purpose and beautiful design. Washers and dryers touch on what is both humble and high in life.
While some of my paintings search for contrasts by using soft materials and hard-edged subject matter, that was hard to do in the flowerbed and the solar system paintings - the subjects are not hard-edged (as are washer-dryer combos, roadways, and houses). Flowers are soft and flexible; the sun is a burning ball; planets are round. Searchlights are another problem; they are a metaphor. So I am really searching for contrasts that I can't put into words.
