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I am a realist only in a broad sense of the word. I do not champion objectivity over subjectivity; life is inevitably a complex mixture of the two.
I do not see a realistic style as an aim in itself, but rather as a starting point. My object has been to confront the fundamental problems of painting the outside world. I fear that without this grounding, the forging of an effective style could result in a creative pothole; a style that entraps rather than enables self-expression.
Most paintings represent an intertwined collection of thoughts and feelings. Attempts to unravel these and express them in a straggling line of words often prove unsatisfactory. However a central preoccupation of mine concerns the freedom to direct ourselves that we naturally possess as human beings.
I use open anonymous landscapes as a metaphor for this freedom. Such topography refrains from prompting or shepherding the mind. The foreground represents the here and now; beyond is unimpeded travel to alternative destinations. I find that in life such landscapes can have a power to put us back in touch with our fundamental inclinations and restore our natural appetite for vision and self-direction.
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