When I was a teenager my family lived in Iraq for a year. It was a different place then. We traveled extensively throughout the region, visiting some of the most ancient sites of human habitation. Living in the Middle East was an introduction to the idea that what we see and how we see is profoundly shaped by our social and cultural histories. 

Decades later, a chance encounter with a Mohawk historian led to some deep and enduring friendships that have further convinced me that we cannot truly know ourselves until we look deeply into the “other.”

The idea that we are living out our cultural stories, consciously or unconsciously, has influenced my painting. The paintings are themselves narratives, an attempt to ascertain what story we are living in, and the limits of our ability to alter the story. 

I was trained as an abstract painter and continue to use the paint itself as a starting point. I build the paint in layers, or veils, as I think of them. The veils are permeable membranes, or divisions, that obscure and add to the layers beneath. Together, superimposed upon each other, they create an ambiguous whole where many things are true at the same time. To me this represents the world as it really is. 

For the past 36 years I have lived in a small house that is bordered on three sides by state forest. My studio is a greenhouse that looks into the forest. Other life forms surround me and I witness their dramas. How I perceive their stories, and how they overlap with mine, is also the content of my work.

HKL