DEAN DAY GALLERY

ARTIST STATEMENT

My professional painting career began in the 1990's, though I have been paining since 1987. My first solo exhibit was at Mendenhall Gallery in 1994, after being discovered by R. Kenton Nelson. Taken by my technique of capturing light and reflection with water, He decided to introduce me to Ted Mendenhall, our first show together sold out.

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My work had begun to center in on an idea of "isolation without loneliness". The imagery itself was set around California pools and urban settings. Inspired in college days by David Hockney, Eric Fischl, and John Register. I was challenging myself to paint settings that implied a presence, without focusing on the figure. To me, by not focusing on the figure, I found I could expand the narrative in a painting.

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While the pool settings specifically predominate the body of work, urban settings from L.A and New York have also expanded my visual vocabulary and keep me in an endless dialogue of inspiration. I love light! I love reflection and shadow. There is also an importance given to the narrative, without boxing it in.

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Czeslaw Milosz is one of my favorite poets, and his way of "celebrating the ordinary" is also a focal point I find in my work. I want to tell stories with images, to hold the viewer long enough to engage the intrinsic ideas they themselves brought to the narrative.