I am an extremely curious individual and finding answers to my constantly evolving questions is what drives me. My work is focused on my curiosities surrounding perceptual experience. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines perception as an "awareness of the elements of the environment through physical sensation (color perception)," and as a "physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience." Perception is everything to me. Each time I draw or paint I begin by questioning how I experience and perceive what I'm seeing and how the observed objects relate to one another. My drawings are my solutions to such questioning and result in representations of my visual experience more truthful, in terms of perception, than a photo.
One of the first questions I must ask myself is, "What am I looking at?" I can't presume to know what something is until I have studied it within the confines of its surroundings because I cannot perceive it outside them. Likewise, the surroundings must also be studied within the context of the object(s) it encloses. Neither exists without the other. If I studied the object only and not the space around it I would be ignoring a huge part of what defines it so I take into account everything I see in my visual field to determine what I am actually observing.
Because I am interested in a broader picture, I find the spacial relationships that exist primarily within interior spaces extremely fascinating. It is impossible to create physical space on a two-dimensional surface, but it is possible to achieve a space that can be felt when the right color, value and shape of one object has been found in accordance with the right color, value and shape of another. In this way, French painter, Edouard Vuillard suggested that one should, "Conceive of a picture really as a series of harmonies." It is the moment that they all work together in a synchronous manner, that space presents itself.