Soil, is not just a metaphor for the earth, it is, the earth. Soil is made up of knowable, nameable forms: dirt, rocks, plants, animals, microbes and fungi, alive or dead or somewhere in between. As forms complete their lifecycles or primary purpose and begin the process of becoming formless through geological or biological transformation, they become soil, they become dirt, they become earth. I am interested in the gray space between form and formlessness.

“In the particular is contained the universal.” (James Joyce.) Through the investigation of the particulars of nature in my immediate surroundings, particularly (sub)urban Los Angeles, I seek to reveal universal answers to unformed questions about my observations. The answers are slippery and, ultimately not so important, but they help me understand the questions I want to ask. The work is a byproduct of the struggle for this knowledge.

The investigation consists of looking and using traditional approaches to drawing, painting and printmaking as a process of selection and documentation. Focusing on the flotsam of nature, the dirt, the weeds, the dead birds, I try to communicate, what I find without intentional interpretation, similar to a portrait. Like any good portrait, I hope these images allude to the magic that we cannot easily see, the conversation between the knowable past and the speculative future.

The radical act of looking can pierce the obscuring effect of the simple categorization of the individual forms as they continue their evolution. Careful observation reveals the precarious points of transition.  No need to interpret, translate or explain. Simply look and record. There is an intimacy to this process, to the deep and literal witnessing of transformation.