Summer of 2012 I started on a new series and perhaps a whole new direction.
What used to be a beginning process in my representational works has now become the singular effort. I am speaking of painting non-objectively or abstraction. With the Hmmvw series and the TreeMachine series, my process was to fill the canvas with an abstract underpainting. I did this to have a ground from which to launch into the painting of the image. Painting an abstract underpainting made it easier. It was uncomfortable for me to start painting in earnest, from a blank and white canvas. As time went by, I found that the underpainting began to have an equal play with the image I put on top of it.
As I move forward with my painting process, I find myself perhaps, painting who I am rather than some image. Since painting abstractly relies a lot on my indecision and playfulness, I come up against it in ways that mirror life itself. My only goal in these non-objective paintings is to continue and to go forward. The effort is to push through the places where I want to stay, where I want to rest, where I am fixed. By wiping away the precious parts of my painting, I come up against myself—do I really want to learn something new?
