Biomorphic Garden Party

My work changed drastically one day in 2010 when I found myself creating surreal organic environments. Although I started from a place of abstraction, they became filled with strange hybrids of flowers, cells, and symbols that appeared like organisms from another planet. It was only later that I found out I had cancer crawling through my body at an alarming rate. When my doctor showed me the scans of the tumor, and close-ups of the cells, it looked almost identical to what I had been painting – tentacles and all. A new fascination with the macro universe and micro universe was born. 

This series brings together my interests in botany, microbiology, monsters, space, disease, and the evolution of cells. The alchemy of oil paint is used to dictate direction, shape aesthetic outcomes, and transform emotional impressions. Insects, flowers, human organs all come from the same process at the core, but within these works visualizing their fictional evolution at any given stage comes from instinct. Creating my own fragile beings and nature within these little worlds, alien forms mesh with what might be viewed under a microscope or through a telescope. They are an artificial nature or a nature that is simply unknown to us, scientized and made more delectable. Perhaps it is a wider vision of awareness, of what is seen and unseen.

This is my biomorphic garden party.