Artist’s Statement

 The Canadian west coast, with its unique climate and wild character, lends itself to artists seeking to express the forces of nature in their artwork. Trees and rocks have been scoured by wind and water in ways that provide a metaphor for the way in which people have been shaped by equivalent influences. The paths people take in their lives reflect their ability to understand and relate to patterns in their environment. Art should reflect these designs and it is with this metaphorical knowledge that I approach my artwork. My travels to different countries and, in particular, Afghanistan has given me perspective on what various cultures choose to value in life.  The interrelationship between land, sea and sky along the West Coast of BC involves patterns which when exaggerated allow for striking artistic images of these metaphors. These are accomplished by the careful design of my artwork before I start painting.
      My art reflects the belief that our senses reveal only a shadow of what we truly experience. Rather than painting to convey an emotional state like most expressionist painters, I instead attempt to paint the portion of nature a photograph cannot capture. The painting of  representational pieces led me to realize that the true joy in producing  a painting comes not from the accurate copying of an object but rather from the letting go and producing what is actually there. Rather than imposing my emotional state on nature I prefer the art of  "actualism" whereby the actual nature of a scene is depicted. 
     Landscapes provide a means of linking our real physical world to our senses. While generally out of favour in the art community, this environment around us is the single most important input to our senses everyday. Understanding how this “scenery” affects us should be an essential part of the artist’s striving.

“Day and Night, the Sea keeps on churning the foam. You behold the foam but not the Sea—How strange.
How should the foam like shape move without waves? How can dust rise to the zenith without wind? …
     Before the painter and brush, the picture is helpless and shackled like a child in the womb. The picture derives its movement only from the painter’s brush, the compass’ foot revolves around the point.”

“Colourlessness is the root of colours, picturelessness the root of pictures, wordlessness the root of words and the mine the root of coins- so behold!
Thousands of colours have come from the vat, which transcends blue and white.
Form comes into existence from the formless, just as smoke is born from fire.”

“This world is maintained by imagination. You call it “reality”, since it can be seen and perceived, and those meanings of which the world is an offshoot you call “imagination”. The true situation is the reverse. The imagination is this world itself, for that meaning brings into existence a hundred worlds like this, and they rot and disintegrate and become naught. Then it produces a new world and better…”
Rumi translated by W. C. Chittick (The Sufi Path of Love, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983).