In the simplest terms, my work is about the act of seeing. The subjects that interest me are the landscapes, scenes, and mementos of our daily lives. My intent is to draw attention back to the quotidian and ask the viewer to reassess the value they’d previously assigned to such a scene or object. As someone most comfortable in nature, it’s important to me to not simply draw attention to the natural world, but also to find meaning, beauty or even sacredness in the human-made world. Artificial objects, consumerism and the mise en scène of Capitalism are a reality most of us live within, and it’s easy to disregard that part of our world as superficial in the extreme. My work is not meant to argue that Capitalism is not superficial, but rather it is an attempt to push the boundaries, push our expectations, of where beauty can be found. So while I often paint the natural world, I also paint gas stations, trash cans, playdough. I am seeking the proverbial “sacred mundane,” even inside the aspects of our lives we’ve been taught to see as artificial or soulless. As a whole, the work is an attempt at re-enchantment.

Sometimes I present the subject simply, on its own terms, hoping it will speak for itself. Other times I might embellish or underscore its importance by adding the motifs and designs typically associated with religious art of the Middle Ages. My use of the art of this period is an intentional reclamation of the Pagan archetypes and beliefs that were demonized by the Catholic church at that time; beliefs that echo ideas of the Sacred Mundane. Medieval Christianity formed the foundation upon which colonization and its bedfellow, consumer culture, were built upon. Western standards around beauty, rules about what is Divine and what is not, an emphasis on individual deliverance over communal reciprocity are all the inheritance of the Medieval church. While the term “paganism” covers a huge geographic and culturally diverse area—generally associated with the Indo-Europeans—there are a number of common themes amongst almost all pagan groups: Animism, cyclical time (as opposed to the Western opinion of linear time), and nature as Divine. Combined, these tenants uphold the idea that the “mundane” elements of our lives, and of nature writ large, are sacred, beautiful and deserving of our time, respect and love. My hope is that the viewer feels a sense of re-enchantment and can move through the world with a renewed sense of wonder, respect and a broader definition of beauty and the divine.