Iron Pastorals

I do landscape paintings on weathered and repurposed materials.  In my work I explore our connection to the environment and the divergence of the modern world with nature.  Employing salvaged sheet metal, I create work that evokes the memory of the Midwest’s farmland roots on remnants of today's industrialized world.  I build up surfaces on these formally constructed found metal “canvases” to reflect the struggle of savage and urbane forces and to illustrate the influence humankind has over the land.

   

The title of my current series of paintings is “Iron Pastorals”, which simply means, paintings of rural and natural scenes on discarded objects of industry and culture.  The title is inspired by a book of poetry by almost the same name, “The Iron Pastoral” published in 1947 by Chicago poet John Frederick Nims.  Like other writers of the time, Nims observed how Chicago had grown out of the meeting of prairie and lakeshore into a discordant field of buildings and commerce
   

I believe that we have a responsibility to find a balance between our development and the environment.  We have sought progress at the expense of the surrounding ecosystems.  I am fascinated by how nature also continues to progress, and constantly reclaims what we have built.  The land reflects our past, and is our conscience.  While my work shows an underlying concern for our environment, I seek to reveal something beautiful, and reveal how in this wondrous land and sky is where we will find our future.