An Evolving Practice
My work has developed through three interconnected stages, each building on the ideas explored in the one before it. Although the materials and visual language have changed, the underlying concerns have remained remarkably consistent: memory, perception, identity, and the way meaning is constructed through layers of experience.
My earlier work centred on portraiture. Rather than creating conventional likenesses, I became interested in the psychological space between recognition and uncertainty. These portraits explored how identity is never completely visible but is continually shaped by memory, projection, and the stories we tell about one another. This body of work culminated in the Talking to Strangers series, exhibited throughout British Columbia.
The second stage of my practice moved away from direct representation toward abstraction. Working on transparent Plexiglas, often painting on successive layers and occasionally on both sides of the support, I began constructing images through accumulation rather than description. Colour, texture, and transparency replaced narrative as the primary means of expression. These paintings investigate concealment, revelation, and the physical process of painting itself, allowing earlier decisions to remain visible beneath later ones.
More recently, I have begun creating a series of interventions on found framed images collected from thrift stores. Rather than treating the frame as a separate object, it is repainted as an integral part of the work. These small assemblages transform discarded images into new objects, exploring memory, loss, and renewal through acts of concealment and reconstruction. Each piece retains traces of its previous life while becoming something entirely new.
Although these three bodies of work differ in appearance, they are united by a continuing interest in transformation. Whether working with the human face, transparent layers of paint, or found images, my aim is to create works that invite contemplation and encourage viewers to discover their own meanings through sustained looking.
.