"Windthrow 2" Drawing

In my practice of creating work that is decidedly ambiguous, I do not intend to separate the roles of maker and onlooker. The onlooker and I function in similar ways. Someone viewing my work for the first time, with little to no knowledge of how it’s made, is completely uninitiated in regards to its meanings. And this is neither unfortunate nor accidental; this is necessary. The primary goal in showing these pieces is to have them exist more fully, as a direct result of being shown. Their 'success' hinges on the viewers' various interpretations. Obviously, nothing about the work actually changes as a result of its being shown, but my impetus in creating it is largely contingent on its being seen and considered by strangers. And so, until these paintings are actually experienced by a body of outsiders, they are as ineffective as an unpublished crossword puzzle; they are as unnecessary as a full course meal with no dinner guests. Picasso said, "A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough as the picture lives only through the person who is looking at it." If this sentiment is true, it is appropriate then that what little definition my work does suggest is in regards to its organic nature. Spatially, my work defines very little. Each painting has a singular, focal subject, which occupies the majority of the frame. Within the margins, the negative space can be easily perceived as being a landscape, as there is a three-dimensionally rendered horizontal plane. This naturalized format lends itself in conveying an environment of which the subject can be an inhabitant, as opposed to a mere object occupying a vacuum. This gesture of liveliness in turn activates the viewer, offering them an opportunity to experience something - to have an 'experience' - as opposed to simply survey something. The frame becomes a window, through which the viewer can observe the subject like a beast in a Victorian zoo. And in much the same way a viewer may linger on a portrait, feeling obliged to lock eyes with the subject, my paintings might also demand their gaze. If they feel compelled to maintain 'eye contact' out of instinctive politeness, perhaps they will do so with my paintings by some similar innate reasoning, like a hiker letting a bear know that he knows that it knows that he knows, and so forth.