Mint Julep Plunge Painting

I combine my figures with abstract elements to suggest thought or emotion, psychology, intention, or history beyond the literal depiction of the figure. The flattening of space, addition of marks and symbols, and omission of other elements are tools of abstraction that I use. The figure’s gesture is my entry point into interpreting and understanding. I look for the weight and subtle shifts of posture and curve. I break up the figure by making abstract marks with a variety of brushes, knives, scrapers, squeegees, trowels, and other hardware finds. Along the way, I celebrate the surprises, how the marks add to or subtract from the image in both representational and abstract ways. Learning about the figure and revisioning it in these ways helps me tell its story. All of this produces a painting that reveals a pentimento, or history of the paint and marks, showing how each layer influences the next and builds on the last. It’s important that the final painting has mystery and unanswered questions, distinct and indistinct passages, so that viewers can enter the painting with their own histories and filters and find their own stories.