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Two significant urges underlie my work: to make beautiful and engaging art, and to create some drama that causes the viewer to ask questions. In the series, "Abstraction for Dogs," minimal geometric abstract painting is made at dog height directly on objects left on the street. The targeted viewer is a conceptual construct, as dogs don't look at art. Why dogs? Because they can never be a discerning part of the art world, yet they leave their mark and erase others to assert themselves just as artists do. In "Self-Portraits with Napoleon," I place my own dog next to me in romantically staged paintings, as in Manet's "Olympia." I use watercolor on paper and paint in a realistic style free from misleading expressive gestures to ensure that the idea of the painting is foremost. The paintings undermine the dominant position of the (male) viewer through the potentially erotic interaction between a nude woman and her dog. Sometimes Napoleon confronts the viewer, being my watchdog and protector. At other times he looks at me and becomes the viewer. Either way, the actual viewer is deprived of visual ownership or objectification of me, the female nude, because of Napoleon's presence. Most recently, the "Flower Target" paintings continue to communicate my desire to confront through beauty. While the readable and traditional language of hard-edged geometric abstraction and color rewards the viewer with eye candy, the image of a target evolving into a flower suggests feelings of physical and social vulnerability. The flower and the exposed wood grain of the panel represent Nature, and things female, while the target is the icon for male (military, sportsman) sight (site). |
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