..JW..

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I try to express the paradoxical element that reveals the ambivalent, manic-depressive nature of life. My imagery is a reflection of the thought process. Through painting I attempt to arbitrarily capture or record from the flow of mental images. My ideas come from hard conscious reality (tenuous relationships, overcrowding, involuntary interdependence, life in flux, losing self) where contradictions exist that can be integrated with irrational thoughts, the dreamstate, the subconscious.

Like Dadaists and Surrealists, I feel a certain defiance towards the conventional established art world and its inflexible standards rooted in tradition. But rather than turn my back and discount academic figurative pictorial painting, I find myself fascinated by the Old Masters’ approach to painting. I feel the need for a certain level of discipline and pay fastidious attention to detail, light and color. I see it as another source to spur my personal sense of creativity. For me, opening the realm of possibility through painting takes precedence over following any movement, sensibility, etc.