The combining and re-combining of materials and objects is nothing new to the art world. From aboriginal folk art to the 'combines' of Robert Rauschenberg, unpredictable forms of expression have often sprung out of serendipitous or provocative juxtapositions of scrap materials and unwanted objects. For the past ten years, this has been my primary medium: found objects, rags, wood scraps and paint. They speak to me visually and draw my attention to new aesthetic possibilities. A haphazard array of such elements strewn about my studio will often grab my attention and start me on a journey where I explore formal relationships that want to take on a life of their own. An un-expected color palette may come out of elements that have been painted, sanded, re-painted, sawn and re-shaped. Contrasting textures emerge while tensions in form and color converge. The work evolves until it stands on it's own as a new aesthetic proposition. Whether through the use of photography or purely digital painting and collage work, I continue to explore the world of printed imagery. As with my ‘Compositions In Wood’, my approach to making art through print media is also ‘formalist’ in nature. I am somehow driven to capture and work with visual elements of my immediate world. I find and photograph natural occurrences of juxtaposed colors and shapes or patterns of light and dark that, when composed in a certain way, maintain a visual energy that lasts.
