I’m interested in the place where nature and design cross over. Formalized nature—that is, nature intended to produce an image of “nature,” such as ikebana, bonsai, and formal landscaping— appeals to me for its peculiar theatricality. It’s an aesthetic that is poetically staged and awkwardly ideal—a balance of intuition and strategy. Behind this aesthetic is a desire to “arrange,” to position form and gesture in a way that is gracefully asymmetrical, and in doing so, to shape the abstact constuct of what we refer to as “natural beauty.”

All the marks in my paintings are made with stencils cut from masking tape. The paint is applied with a variety of tools, which results in a wide range of surface values, from flat and smooth to thick and gestural, yet always with a manicured edge. As with formal landscaping, the relationship between chaos and order is refined into a picturesque image, one that suggests the idea of nature rather than nature itself.