Sheetrock Paintings
In 2012 I began thinking about creating a new series of paintings. However, I didn’t act on this impulse until 2014. I love painting and I think that is apparent in all of my work. A tactile surface quality is a driving force. As with all of my work, there were rules and questions that required answers. The modern mastery of Rothko, Motherwell and Kline has always left them untouchable in my mind. Re-interpreting in a meaningful and relevant way has become the challenge in these works. The Sheetrock Paintings approach ideas of abstract expressionism and the erasure of hard edge of the De Stijl and early modernism. They also poke at contemporary architecture in a humorous way, as no worker would ever apply drywall mud in such an impastoed manner.
Clay Ketter and others have nodded to the relationship between painting and construction practices, elevating construction materials to the realm of painting, but often seem to leave out the paint. I have tried to approach my work from the opposite direction. The sheetrock paintings are made of gesso, marble dust and latex on canvas, re-creating the surfaces found on a potential construction site and elevating them to a place of abstract painting.
The paintings allow room for narrative, often talking about disaster as well as new construction. The compositions reference existing conditions and structures as well as revisiting Modern aesthetics and sensibilities.