Artist Statement
Why I paint, what I am chasing on the canvas, and the three principles that guide every work.
Artist statement
Wanting what we cannot have
It took me 37 years to understand something fundamental: we humans want what we don’t or can’t have. But do we want it because it is better, or just because we don’t have it?
The tension of desiring what I don’t have lives in the satisfaction of not satisfying that desire. I admire the complexity of human psychology and believe that exploring language deepens artistic practice. It is through the use (and misuse) of words that we cultivate the inner sensitivity that later reveals itself on the canvas.
I’m not sorry if my work doesn’t match the sofa. But I’m hoping it matches someone’s fears, thoughts and feelings. I am still growing as a painter, but I promise I will be great at making you feel my work.
Three principles I paint by
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Observe
Observation is key to finding patterns and understanding myself and the world around me. I watch the easel and the unfinished painting, letting it show what it needs before acting.
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Construct
The rebellious act of stepping away from desiring and thinking, into the actual making. The first heavy marks, a layer I can’t undo, or even starting a blank canvas.
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Disrupt
Refusing to repeat the pattern: scratching, revealing the layer underneath, staining, dripping, and introducing an element even if it could change or destroy the work done.
Behind the work is a story
From Argentina to Helsinki, from boardrooms to the sky: read how an emerging self-taught painter found his vocation.