Statement

My work has always been about place. Each painting is created with the hope of passing on my personal visual interpretation of a particular place to the viewer. I strive to render every painting with the highest commitment to realism and craftsmanship that I can, both to accurately capture the place as well as draw the viewer in to a close proximity and personal relationship with my paintings.

My current body of work is a project I am calling “100 Views of Tokyo”. This is a long term commitment to a subject that is both an homage to the artists I have admired and been influenced by, as well as my own opportunity to explore a subject intimately, artistically and intellectually, over a long, sustained period of time. I aim to create a body of work that will visually examine the city of Tokyo, it's place, it's architecture, etc.  My exploration is of the contemporary place, as it exists now. It observes the current as well as the evolution of the place, and the culture that created and maintains it, from the old Edo period city to the cosmopolitan global city it is currently.

My observations are from the view of the 21st century American painter’s eyes, of a generation and culture whose understanding of place is so often mediated by the camera’s lens. This reinforces my commitment to the highest realism, in that detailed, photographic images are how we come to know places we have never been ourselves.

I enjoy learning about the place I paint and experiencing it on a highly personal level, beyond that of tourist, documentarian, or student. In the case of Tokyo, I have family connections with the city that date back to the Edo era city and that connection allows me to feel the comfort and attachment enough to paint with conviction. Like my paintings of the Amish in years past, my view of Tokyo is taken from a common, personal, perspective. I strive to portray the place as-is, perhaps with great nostalgia, but free of romanticism.

“100 Views of Tokyo” will stand together as a body of work almost serving as an album of my experience and relationship with the city and place. Each painting has it’s own individual merit and value, but the complete body of paintings overall is the final and cohesive piece of art. It will take many years to complete, but much as my previous work portraying the farms and land of the Amish, it will only then feel I have a complete relationship and understanding of the unique, and to me quite foreign, place I am painting. My painting creates that relationship for me, and ultimately I hope to pass some of that on to the viewers of my works.