- Artist Statement -

This new, collaborative body of work which took a year to curate represents all the powerful shifts in perspective, learning and growth that both Kent and I have experienced as a result of our collaboration and connection.

Kent Burkhardsmeier is the artist I collaborated with on this joint exhibition. Kent and I are from two different generations and have two very different styles of work, but we established a strong connection based on our passion for art and the power it has to help us all view the world from a new lens.

This exhibition represents what is possible when we choose to see life through the lens of connected, period. In other words, what’s possible when we decide, as our manifesto below conveys, no matter what...there is always a point of connection.

Take Kent’s photograph “Connected Energy”, for example. You could say there’s a break in the chain. You could choose to view it through the lens of disconnected. But when you put your “connected, period” lens on, you’ll see two children reaching for one another and you’ll begin to feel the kinetic energy connecting them. That is what my brushstrokes represent in this piece.

They help bring your attention to the choice you get to make, all day every day…

Which lens am I going to choose to see this person, this situation through? Disconnected or connected?

One of the reasons art is so powerful is because it meets you right where you’re at…no judgments, no preconceived notions. It doesn’t ask you why you aren’t further along. It doesn’t care what age you are, what political group you affiliate with, if you’re married or single. Your status, your background and your bank account are completely irrelevant in the presence of art.

All art cares about is who you are at your essence…when you can’t check any boxes to define yourself. And it also cares about who you are becoming. When you allow yourself to surrender to it, it will elicit exactly the right questions for you to consider in order to grow in powerful ways.

I think this is why I’m often called to paint large...because I love the idea of us all getting engulfed by art...getting lost in its invitation to go beyond. Beyond the limiting beliefs and definitions each one of us has about ourselves and about each other.

To date, “Prayer on Repeat” is the largest piece I’ve ever created. I got the canvases about a year ago when I was in a different place and was a different person. The canvases sat blank for over 4 months because I was scared. When I finally cultivated enough faith and courage to make my initial marks, I couldn’t touch them again for a long time after that. I think I was trying to make time go still. You see to me, each stroke captures a moment in time.

To some, my work may look chaotic, but I am not just randomly placing lines on a canvas. Yes, there are times my strokes transcend standard logic and it feels as though I’m being guided by a mystical muse, but I can assure you none of my work is by chance.

My paintings are my prayers that go out into the world. And what this piece in particular represents is the journey of a prayer. The big prayers we all hold in our hearts...for ourselves, our communities and humanity at large...the big prayers require a journey.

Perceived missteps and failures are inevitable when going beyond what has been before. Which is why, as the title implies, the prayer must be on repeat.

I believe there’s not a more beautiful prayer to be on repeat than the prayer of connected, period. Make it your mantra, your commitment, your intention. And, I invite you to let the unlikely marriage of literal + abstract that this exhibition so clearly embodies to remind you of the connections that can be found just a layer or two beyond the obvious.