The idea for my series ‘Artifacts’ came about from two different encounters. One was the observation of my water glass that I had unconsciously placed on my palette as I was painting. The glass which was half filled with water created this wonderful distortion of forms and colors and with the late afternoon sunlight streaming in through the studio window, everything on the palette buzzed with illumination. The glass seemed to be floating in a fluid abstract field of color. The other encounter happened as I was wandering around a Goodwill store trying to kill some time ( which already sounds very existential ). I happened across an aisle full of miscellaneous glass objects. Now Goodwill on a good day will usually elicit a certain degree of pensive sadness in me but on this particular day I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of melancholy when I looked at these objects. I began to wonder who had owned these knickknacks, how they came upon them, were they a part of their lives for a long time, has the person died and that is why they have ended up here discarded on a shelf and with a sticker that says fifty-cents on it. Without thinking about it too much I purchased a few of these objects not knowing exactly what I was going to do with them. It wasn’t until I got home and remembered my experience with my water glass that I had the idea of re-inventing these abandoned tchotchkes and giving them a new lease of life.
For me this collection of paintings deals with the passing of time and the passing of humans through time. As a child my mother always used the expression “you can’t take it with you” which I’ve always liked because it’s succinct and to the point. With these paintings there is an ironic, playful sense that you can’t take it with you and that that’s alright, that long after we are gone all that will remain will be our discarded objects, artifacts if you will, of our collective existence. There is of course also an optimism in these pieces, for these objects which were at some point thrown away and discarded are now given center stage allowing for a new appreciation and a new sense of worth that is a priceless human quality.