About the Block Series

I have always had a predisposition to study and celebrate objects. Material culture - the accumulated objects created by a society - is of great interest to me. I developed a passion for painting objects during university studies in archaeology. Through student research and work as a graphic artist at MASCA, the research lab at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, I had the privilege of handling restricted artifacts in Penn’s world-renowned collection. As I turned over delicate Roman glass vessels in my hands and watched light fall across the point of a crumbling arrowhead, I was struck by the power of material culture. Innumerable stories dust the surfaces of these objects we create, use, and discard through daily life. My goal as an artist is to capture these stories and to reveal their power and beauty to others.

My enthusiasm for objects found a new voice when my daughter Stella burst into the world on April 8th, 2007. The joy, energy, and unbridled curiosity she ushered into my life on that cold spring day and every day since inspired the Block Series. During spring in 2008, I started painting "portraits" of Stella's block constructions. When she was very little I'd build exciting towers to entice her to crawl or walk and knock them down. Now she stacks the blocks and balls, teacups, Lego bricks...whatever is on hand. After painting some of Stella's towers I started dreaming up other creations and painting them. I have also spent a great deal of time in my studio studying her blocks and watching the light pool and bend on them. I enjoy exploring the edge between representation and abstraction, and simple object like blocks, balls, and basic toys are wonderful tools for this purpose. It has been a great inspiration for me to study these simple forms and find meaning in their design and arrangement.

As I watch my daughter at play I am reminded of our powerful link to objects during this crucial stage of human development. We navigate early childhood as empty vessels, looking for ways to fill ourselves with essential information about our world and the codes that govern our civilization. Ultimately, blocks, balls, and other playtime toys shape our understanding of what it means to be human. Objects tell so many stories about us and bind us together as a culture, establishing our rich legacy for future interpretation. Blocks, balls, and toys…these objects are as material to our collective human story as any of our more sophisticated creations.

The beauty and power of block play and stacked objects has instilled in me a passion to move the still life genre in a new direction - vertical. Many still life paintings are based on objects scattered across a surface. As an artist adds more objects to a typical still life setup, the composition starts to grow horizontally. I have found a new freedom in painting stacks. There is a tangible sense of forces acting on the subject: in a physical sense, we see this force as gravity. Metaphorically, however, a stack of blocks and toys has the power to convey many different kinds of influences and pressures active during childhood. Through my art I celebrate the profound sensual and psychological impact these objects have on our being.