Artist Statement
I’m an artist and a veteran, and I live and work in Richmond, VA. My paintings come from an interest in texture, movement, the joy of improvisation, and the physicality of paint. Because my process rarely involves a planned result, the image created may skew abstract or may become decidedly figurative. What you see is a conversation with materials over a period of weeks or months. And because of the nature of materials and tools I use, these works become something in between a drawing, a painting, and a relief sculpture. I might begin by slapping gobs of wood putty into hard, craggy peaks. Then I chisel them down, changing their alignment or destroying them completely. Then I squirt out acrylic paint with a syringe into a heap of twisting vines. Once dry, I might build up another layer of syringed paint or carve a new path through that tangle with my palette knife and chisel. Then more material. Then more erosion. And all this colorful, patterned junk slowly forms an image atop and through a karst topography that shifts when viewed in the half-round. Painting this way allows me to create a stratigraphic image that combines physical and illusionistic space through a process that embrace change and reacts to time and impulse.
My drawings are equally improvised, yet are generally figurative. Unlike the paintings, they are made very quickly - usually over the course of a couple days. When drawing, I’m able to reflect on more concrete ideas such as a conversation I had with a client, the process of losing an old friend, or simply riffing on a yoga pose. Very often when I draw human figures, they are going through some sort of turmoil. Sometimes these characters are victorious in their battles. Sometimes not. Sometimes they’re accepting of the chaos around them. Sometimes they fold to it. Whatever their outcomes, letting circumstances play out in these free-form drawings is a way for me to recognize and work through the struggles we all face in hopes of finding some sort of wisdom and purpose in them.
Education
2013 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA BFA - Painting/Printmaking
2007 College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA BS - Geology
Solo Exhibitions
2017 Richmond Public Library, Richmond, VA, “Wiggle”
2017 artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Syringe Work”
Group Exhibitions
2019 Project Space, Richmond, VA, “Environment at Risk” (Curated by Jessica Sims)
2018 BB&T Center, Miami, FL, “Abstract Athlete: Exhibition II” (Curated by Ron Johnson)
2018 artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Blue Coup” (Curated by Jere Kittle)
2018 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Abstract Athlete: Exhibition I” (Curated by Ron Johnson)
2017 Current Art Fair, Richmond, VA, represented by Ada Gallery
2016 artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Within Reach” (Curated by Michael Pierce and Elaine Rogers)
2015 National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago, IL, “The Joe Bonham Project” (Curated by Mike D. Fay)
2014 Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities, Denver, CO, “The Joe Bonham Project: We Are Not Our Wounds” (Curated by Simon Zalkind [Catalogue])
2014 Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC, “Joe Bonham Project: Drawing the Stories of America’s Wounded Veterans”
2013 Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Almost Famous” (Curated by Beverly Reynolds)
2013 Painting and Printmaking Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, "Senior Show”
2013 The Fishbowl Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, "Interaction 42" (Jurors: Barbara Tisserat and Reni Gower)
2013 Linden Row Inn (1708 Gallery Satellite Exhibition Space), Richmond, VA, “The American Landscape” (Curated by Amie Oliver)
2012 Pepco Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC, “The Joe Bonham Project” (Curated by Mike D. Fay [Catalogue]
2012 Project Space Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Good and Good for You” (Curated by Reni Gower [Catalogue])
2012 Project Space Gallery, Richmond, VA, “Appropriately Rustic”
2012 Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, “Annual Fine Art Exhibition” (Juror: Tina Kukielski)
2011 Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, “Annual Fine Art Exhibition” (Juror: Dominic Molon)
2011 F.A.B. Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, “View 2011 Student Exhibition” (Juror: James Busby)
Selected Awards and Distinctions
VCUArts Undergraduate Research Grant (Mentor: Reni Gower)
Ed Steinberg Award
Merit Studio Honors Painting Program Participant
Award of Distinction for Painting and Printmaking
Christopher Bell Memorial Scholarship
Brooks Fellowship and Anderson Ranch Scholarship