Pieces of Lawrence: His Hat, 2018

My work is about training our awareness to the background - that which is often invisible or ignored, but is the field from which everything arises. This background manifests as landscape, the quality of transparency, underlying story, or the emotional experiences of the body. My current paintings use symbolic objects, foliage and architectures as an invitation into the contemplation of the never-empty void. I was born and raised on a ranch in the foothills of California’s Coast Range. The first dream I remember from my childhood was that I received a mysterious box filled with ribbons, lace and fine textiles. The blue satin ribbon was the first inkling of the sky-like backgrounds that would appear in my paintings. This vision was a slice of clarity embedded in the dusty landscape. My multidisciplinary practice spans painting, installation and conversational performances. I believe that all things, including perception, arise from a common ground of being and are in constant relationship with what is and what has been. I employ the specificity of images and manners as an invitation into an awareness of the undifferentiated - pure consciousness, endless possibility, blue sky.