Démarche artistique/Artist Statement
I work alternately with three mediums: oil painting, drawing, and collage. I create all my work in series; the pieces I complete in the studio naturally fall into about a dozen ongoing series—some of which have been developing for over twenty years.
Since 1995, working in series has felt like the most effective way to carry out an in-depth visual exploration of a subject, concept, or idea—both within individual works and across the body of work as a whole.
The works within a given series share common elements that guide my painting process while allowing free rein for experimentation. The serial structure provides coherence and clarity to the deliberate, persistent eclecticism that defines my practice: each piece becomes a unique, thrilling journey.
The figure—which I define as any form tied to something real or existing—is central to my approach. My visual research focuses on the construction of the figure. The painting process, within the framework of the series, is thus intimately linked with how the figurative elements are constructed by the paint, which seeks alignment with the expression of my subject matter.
On the whole, my artwork deals with the expression of my innermost self, of which the creative act represents the purest form—the only veritable link. Through painting, a place devoid of self-censorship has been created—by need, by conviction, by desire—and it is in this unique place in my life where the imagery born from my hand awakens, permits discovery, and troubles…
The troubling nature of my images has always been viewed as revealing. It shows me—reveals—that a limit has been surpassed, that an unveiling has taken place. In this sense, I embrace Georges Bataille’s metaphor of the “broken chrysalis”: the moment when, in breaking open, one gains a deeper awareness of self.[1]
My tearing of self is that given moment when I realize that which has materialized itself on the surface before me—when my images reveal themselves to me: the 'figurative' linking, interacting, overlapping, responsive to the ‘conceptual’. My cosa mentale never expresses itself so purely, so void of all artifice, as it does within the images born from my own hand. My creative process is akin to a 'tearing of self' because it is one that never imposes, but represents my obstinate will to discover through the painting process itself.
1. Georges Bataille, L'Érotisme, Œuvres complètes X, Paris, éditions Gallimard, Coll. NRF, 1987, p. 42.