Artist Statement

I believe landscapes carry emotional residue — the accumulated weight of every season, every storm, every quiet afternoon — and my work is an attempt to make that residue visible. I paint what the world looks like when you are finally still enough to see it.

Working in oil and cold wax, I build layer upon layer of color and texture that mirror the way memory itself accumulates — imprecise, layered, more true for being inexact, building and scraping back to create history. I want the viewer to sense the hour changing, to stand at the edge of a field and recognize something they have always known but never quite named; viewing a seascape and feeling they have been there before.

Beginning my formal studies in 1989 at The University of Chicago, I have worked on figure drawing, watercolor, acrylic, and oil. I have worked with Janis Pozzi-Johnson, my teacher and mentor, for several years and consider her a major influence in my work. I have also studied at The Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Institute, The Evanston Art Center, The North Shore Art League, and The Winslow Art Center.

Further influences include J.W. Turner, Claude Monet, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter, Gustave Courbet and my grandfather, Albert Dierberger.