From an early age, I have been fascinated by industrial sites, especially abandoned buildings and the lure these empty, lonely and haunting structures held. Though sad, there I found solitude and in the decades we have become close friends, slowly revealing secrets that lay hidden within each of us.
Over the years the great chasm of time, when focusing on building a business as a graphic designer and commercial advertising photographer, meant expressing my creativity in an entirely different form. One that I would come to draw upon these last several years in the course of developing an artistic fine art vision.
Yet being born and raised in Europe before coming to America also provided me with a unique perspective towards art. An education that drew on the experiences of multiple different cultures, which also meant dealing with issues of ‘belonging’ and ‘nationality’ and my own relationship to them.
During the course of my profession as a graphic designer, I developed a fine sense between design, composition, negative shapes and colour, and their relationship to each other. Expressing these ideas using various forms of media, from traditional oils, acrylics, to film and digital photography, including the use of the computer not only as a tool in post-production work, but to create digital art. Though this allowed me to use a variety of media venues, photography remained my primary tool of expression until 2000, when I seriously focused on building a body of fine art that now included painting.
During this time the dichotomy between photography and painting collimated in 2009, in the creation of the term ‘Abstract Realism’ to describe the photography and multi-medium paintings that were now being created.
The subject matter I drew upon were the industrial sites and empty structures, with which I had established an intimate friendship. Their rich ephemeral textures altered by anonymous hands, spoke volumes to me, as I saw beauty in that which others would dismiss as insignificant trifle. Yet here was ever changing discarded beauty longing to be captured and framed in a different light, so that those who failed to see at first, could now appreciate and possible understand.
I feel fortunate to have the ability to see possibilities in things others neglect and reveal a new perspective, yet while expressing my artistic vision with what brings me pleasure, I also feel a duty as an artist to take on subject matters dealing with social issues. For artists have been given an ability, a voice that enriches our lives with beauty and it is only right, that one acknowledges this gift.
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