The artist's process and goals

Many of the paintings have very complex and detailed backgrounds. This complexity allows for the image to add or offer something new each time the viewer looks at the painting. The paintings tend to reflect an aspect of my personality which is an attention to detail as I try to simultaneously strive for a freedom within the painting. My attempt to incorporate this juxtaposition that fascinates me in art and in life is what drives each painting. Additionally, the equally elusive goal of communicating psychological complexities and nuances with each work is incorporated into each painting. As a psychotherapist, process is the raison d'etre and with this post I will share some of the process for each painting.

Here is the background of Psalm 27:8. Much of the process is a lesson in letting go and not getting attached to parts of the painting. After the background is completed, for this painting, the foreground is then added covering much of the background that has been worked on in detail.

Here, I am working on the details in the background of the painting although much of the details will eventually be covered in the final painting. The layers of the work, however, create the visually rich final project and the thrill of seeing a stunning detail peeking out it what drives this effort.

One of the biggest challenges, I find in any artwork is not abandoning the painting. There is always that moment of overwhelming defeat when you think that there is nothing that can come of the painting and the impulse to abandon the work is overwhelming. It is this point that I think offers me the greatest life lesson in my work.

Sometimes, however, the process is the opposite and the foreground is what I paint first and then the question becomes what background to offer the painting. This too adds its own challenge and that is the fear that the background may ruin something that I am satisfied with. This too I find to be an important part of the process and challenges me to be brave and to believe that pushing past satisfaction, while risking destroying what has already been achieved, can be worth the effort and necessary as well.