This series of paintings uses objects, animals and landscape elements to create personal symbols for emotional states. Each painting is a snapshot, a short story. The simple iconic nature of the images helped me objectify any experience and create a whimsical narrative from it.
Images of nature in these paintings come from reference books, dictionaries and catalogs. A dry, catalogued image becomes a jumping off point, a symbol. There are no stories attached to it, so I am free to create my own.
At the time I was making these paintings, I was photographing decaying signs from my neighborhood. These signs have transformed over time and no longer communicate any commercial message. As a result, they have the same "blank slate" quality of reference illustrations. The textures, shapes and colors of the weathered signs provided further inspiration.
A simple line was achieved by scratching into wet paint. It was a bit like printmaking, where the line I made was the line I was left with. Painting with acrylics on wood further lent itself to producing work with a fresh, graphic quality. - christie at oneroom.org