I think of my paintings as a piece of archeology, not a snapshot in time, or another scrolling image. I don’t mean to artsplain, but a physical painting (not the image of the painting) literally contains the millions of choices made by an artist, in this case mine, that resolve every inch of the surface of the canvas in real time, before the paint dries, with what is essentially colored mud that will not fade away in time. The surface of the painting holds all those choices, mistakes, corrections, experiences, and the full range of emotions, the literal energy of the artist.
This is why we go to museums to experience originals, firsthand. A painting is a container of all this and more. It is made to last hundreds or thousands of years, with the intention that it will pass lovingly and reverently from one generation to the next, into perpetuity. The painting becomes part of our shared legacy. It is not necessarily about what the painting might mean, one person to another, but what it says about the person who has the temerity to claim, “I want to make this piece of creativity, this artist’s experience, part of my family’s legacy.” Whether it is a commission portrait or a piece of fine art, this is why my work is important and why it has value. It is why I consider my collectors family.Art isn’t so much about what you see in it. It’s about what people see in you because it’s yours.