Thoughts on Making Things Look "Real"

These landscapes are becoming loose and less representational each time. I think this is because I'm not interested it drawing things "correctly." I never was. Perhaps my years as a graphic designer made me feel that I had to draw realistic rocks, houses and clouds to fill these scenes, communicating an actual place to the viewer.

I'm shedding this assumption, because these landscapes don't communicate the same thing to everyone. I want to reach people on an emotional level. Though I based "Nightfall" on a village in Labrador, Canada, someone told me it reminded them of a Wisconsin town. Why put limits on what the art "is about?"

It's more fun to make these landscapes without pressure – without the need to draw them the way they would naturally appear. Society wants things to be in order, perfect in fact. I want to break down the rigidness that modern world sometimes reflects on my process and work.

I want to cover these hills and rocks with patterns and textures in a playful, loose way. I want to suggest the surface of water, not replicate it. In "The James Bay Road II," I tried to break the rules of color, form and texture so that the piece ended up looking like a quilt or collage – more folksy and endearing than believable and naturalistic.
 

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