The paintings in “Here and There” are the product of a year of intensive work in my studio.

In an age when so much image production is immediate, the process of building a painting remains slow. It relies on faith that the time put in every day will add up to something in the end. This literal element of time fits conceptually as well. In the same way that a pause is written in a music score as part of the composition, these moments when seemingly nothing is happening are necessary and fertile components of common human experience.

I used many photographs from actual trips and places as reference for the work. But in making the paintings I edited out detail, simplified the space and worked within a narrow range of color. The black of the night paintings and the monochromatic skies of the foggy days allowed me to push almost to the point of abstraction. The body of work became an appreciation of emptiness, of moments that are pauses in the action, or the narrative. I chose landscapes but found I was painting mostly air. This is particularly the case in the paintings of the roads at night and the clouds. There is very little tangible form, but the classical “Landscape” contrast between sky and land is still there. Our perception of the space remains anchored in an embodied “Here”.

In virtually every painting there is a reference to a different, separate place: a “There”. Distant lights, a house, people, and a real or implied sense of travel or movement reinforce the awareness that this is a moment of remove or transition.  I am interested in staying with the feeling of having left someplace but not yet reached another. I have tried to retain a sense of specificity, a sense of place and physical presence while also tapping into a sense of dislocation.  In this respect, the paintings become internal landscapes, or internalized memories of a feeling or mood experienced many times, the many moments when “nothing” nonetheless does add up to something.