CV

Artist’s Statement

The world is a crazy place.  My first goal is to find something beautiful or interesting in all the messiness and, through the act of painting, show it to the viewer.

This thread connects my seemingly disparate bodies of work.  Not all beauty is as obvious as a vase of flowers or a scenic vista. It can be the stillness of an abandoned building, or the phrenetic chaos of a strip-mall, the sparkling light on a crumpled can, or a rusted out tractor, finally at rest.

Throughout my work I explore the tension between memory, myth, and reality, the urban and rural landscapes, and the extraordinary complexities of everyday life.

Substance, Surface, Dreams, Love

Since 2016 a focus of my work has been a series of object portraits in which I ask: Is what we consume – literally and figuratively – healthy? Here I focus on the distractions and standards placed upon society through pervasive consumer culture. I ask how collective values are shaped by what we are sold, and what we buy.

Bright, familiar objects are enlarged, stripped of context, and made unavoidable. The subject is elevated to a meditative icon that retains its seductive nature, a fractured reflective remnant of empty consumption. What was formerly worthless is revalued through the artistic alchemy of the painted surface.

Echoes.
Since 2012 a portion of my work has been an exploration of the psychological and physical landscape of my childhood. Growing up in rural New Hampshire fostered a sense of exploration, but also a sense of isolation within a foreboding landscape. The paintings are not slavish depictions of sites, they are a mixture of observation and memory. In the works I portray the unequal balance between the person and nature. The presence of human activity is secondary – pushed to the edges, or on the verge of succumbing to nature.

I see this series as both a reconciliation with childhood memories, as well as a continuation in the historic tradition of landscape painting – using the natural world as an underpinning for the pastoral and the sublime. With these paintings I offer the viewers a sense of familiarity with the physical and emotional place that balances the specific with the universal.

Daily Painting.

In an effort to improve my skill and deepen my understanding of painting I’ve adopted a routine of daily painting. These still lives and landscapes – often done plein air – are both an exercise and a record of my daily life: finding something beautiful in the places I inhabit and the objects that populate my life.

Exhibitions

2022

  • Grassroots : Emerging Artists: Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA (RAA&M Award for Excellence in Any Medium)
  • Exhibit New England : North Short Arts Association, Gloucester, MA
  • In Transit : Brickbottom Gallery, curated by Gary Deuhr, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios, Somerville, MA

2021

  • Seven Hills : Love Letters from Somerville : the art house, Somerville, MA (solo)
  • Grassroots : Emerging Artists : Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA (Gamblin Prize Winner)
  • Somerville As Muse : Brickbottom Gallery & Somerville Museum, curated by Debra Olin, Somerville, MA
  • Contributing Members Show : Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA
  • The Urban Sketchers : Brickbottom Gallery, curated by Pier Gustafson, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios : Somerville, MA
  • Recycle, Remake, Reuse : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA

2020

  • All Small : Inside Out Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Paintings On the Farm : Sep’s Farm, E. Marion, NY (solo)
  • Holiday Show : Chase Young Gallery, Boston, MA 

2019

  • CHASE YOUNG STUDIO : Chase Young Gallery, Boston, MA
  • Pride : 50 years After Stonewall : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • BAA Members Show : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios : Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2018

  • Paintings : Adam Leveille Simon’s Cafe, Cambridge, MA (solo)
  • Red : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • BAA Members Show : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios : Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2017

  • Sketches : Drawing from life and life drawing : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • BAA Members Show : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios : Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA
  • Plein Air Artist Residency, Seps Farm E. Marion, NY

2016

  • BAA Members Show : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Somerville Open Studios : Somerville, MA
  • Melt : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2015

  • Echoes : Simon’s Too Cafe, Cambridge, MA (solo)
  • Somerville Open Studios: Somerville, MA
  • In (bound) Sight : Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • BAA Members Show: Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2014

  • Somerville Open Studios: Somerville, MA
  • Salon21 : The Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA
  • Brickbottom Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2008 – 2013

  • Somerville Open Studios: Somerville, MA

2007

  • Limitations: Diesel Cafe, Somerville, MA (solo)

Education

Montserrat College of Art : 2002 BFA, cum laude

Represented by:
Chase Young Gallery 450 Harrison Ave, #57, Boston, MA 02118   http://www.chaseyounggallery.com