The Portals & Trenches series features visual symbols of communication—alphabets, numerals—that are portals to understanding different languages, religions, and cultures. I paint the network of criss-crossing trenches created by nature and man, which exist in the material world as well as the subconscious. I often represent rising threats in my works—violence, weapons. As the subject matter becomes more dangerous, my pictorial lines, or trenches, become more predatory, deeper, more aggressive, running to one or more vanishing points. These trenches are safety stops before the next act of aggression. They run through or past portals—portals of hope, of civilization.
Art captures the present moment. When I complete a painting, it is no longer “mine;” it belongs to the past. I live in the present. My newest painting is always closest to me—communicating my emotions and reactions to what is happening in the world around me. I’m living in the trenches looking for the portal.