Free Form

Over the years I’ve come to realize that figurative work, at least for me, leads to a positive feedback loop that can limit my growth. If a piece doesn’t feel or look correct, this scares me, and I begin to obsess over details and demand more control. Quite often this creates more “up tight” work and I retreat to familiar conservative territory in an effort to ward off the feeling of impending failure I see in the piece. This is why I’m continually pursuing what I simply call “experimental painting”. Without figurative demands and the realistic habits I’ve developed, I can pursue impulse and error to discover something new. Not only do all my experimental paintings pull aspects from one another chronologically, but many classical objects and rules from whatever figurative piece I’m working on at the time will meld into my experimental works.