Songwriter E. “Yip” Harburg once said that “Words make you think a thought, music makes you feel a feeling, but a song makes you feel a thought.”
Painting is a personal activity that involves responding both to my own previous actions on a canvas as well as the physical qualities of paint. It is almost exclusively non-verbal, drawing on images that surround me and inhabit my mental and physical space. The forms I am drawn to paint usually involve a cluster of “characters” that interact with each other in a specific, but not easily identifiable manner in a theatrical setting that is equally specific, but not easily identifiable.
To bring the non-verbal interaction to an audience, I quote others’ words when I give the painting a title—most often referencing lyrics from musical theater, the music that I particularly am attracted to. Taken from their intended context, they are meant to reference the music and plot of their source and, for those who recognizes the reference, plant a song in the viewer’s head while they look at the painting.
A finished painting is an expression of a felt thought.
This exhibition is in collaboration with Inman Gallery, Houston, TX
