When we look at the city around us, we tend to see things for what they literally are: a building is a building, a bridge is a bridge. Objects are not typically viewed in the abstract for the lines, shapes and shadows that comprise each image. What would our surroundings look like, however, if we allowed the multitude of components in any given object to take visual predominance over the whole image?

This series of paintings is inspired by cityscapes for all their linear and spatial detail. For example, a particularly rich image is that of a skyscraper partially constructed. What makes the image visually arresting is the contrast between the smooth veneer of the partial finished building with the active and changing construction (or destruction) of its framework. In the case of the half-built building, oftentimes the more captivating half is the skeleton: the exposed steel girders, wires, scaffolding, horizontal repetition of each floor, and the general chaotic geometry of its inner structure. Such images are not recorded directly in the paintings, but are utilized as a starting-point in the two dimensional context of abstract painting.

The paintings are made through several phases using oil paint and graphite pencil on smooth, processed wood. The process, when employing the image of the building, for instance, is as follows. A single view of the building is captured and reduced to the lines of the outward form, the girders, and the floors. The directional angle and the lines are preserved as they are. Also incorporated is all other imagery that could appear in the line of vision, such as the graceful horizontal curves of telephone wires, poles, twisting branches, et cetera. Upon this cacophony of line, the painting is shaped through use of color and is re-composed until a harmony is reached within the discreet work of the painting. Throughout the all of the paintings, regardless of the particular inspirational image, the method of overlaying drawings with a myriad of directional lines is the technical theme. The finished/unfinished contrast occurs by keeping some of the original drawing while allowing other aspects of the painting to be refined.

The paintings invite the viewer to experience sight through the unique eye of the artist and are moreover provocative in demonstrating that we do not see half of what we
look at.