I find that the materials that resonate with me the most are not digital ones, but rather the stuff of the earth: charcoal, India ink, walnut ink, oil pigments, natural size, beeswax -- materials that carry some kind of more direct connection with the ground under my feet. These physical materials engage the body in a way that is visceral, primal and direct. In this I feel gifted by a long tradition of hand made painting. History has welded human experience to the effects of pigment and mark. These practices resound in our bodies in the same way music does and are a part of our shared human journey.

As a painter, I am curious how marks that land on the page or canvas resonate in my body. They strike like musical notes, bringing me to a place of awareness -- a place of feeling, seeing and understanding. While my work is rooted in observational/ perceptual painting, increasingly I'm interested in how the experience of any specific place or moment fosters less tangible associations, linked in memory or imagination. More specifically: I'm interested in exploring how I am affected by the natural world and human relationships. I believe that the resonances/ memories of lived experiences carry unexpected information about the world. 

How does it affect me to raise a child, to walk a dirt road in the Bulgarian countryside, to read about soldiers killed in Ukraine, to swim at night? What can the paint do to express what it feels like to be human, in this complex, beautiful, heart-breaking world? How can the physicality of the painted surface capture what lies beneath the surface of my conscious mind?