My work explores the disconnect between our urban society and the natural world. Once it was a widely held belief that nature itself was spiritual. Some of these landscapes are First Nations sites while others are sublime tracks of land that so stirred the hearts of men in the 19th century that a federal park system was established to ensure they remained a part of our cultural identity. 

   With the Fenced Out pieces I constructed the supports to allude to picket fences. The backyard fence is a symbol. It represents the suburban view of the outdoors while simultaneously being the tool for which we segregate our personal patches of “nature” from the rest of the world. They are made to constrain those inside as much as they are to prevent intrusions. By painting these landscapes on fences, I am addressing the physical and conceptual separation between our contemporary lives and the natural world. 

   Running tangentially from this are the Window Views. These small frames show glimpses of landscapes. They are picturesque yet fleeting, as if taken from a car window, or for a social media post. 

   The third series in this show are my Road Trips. These paintings take a different angle on the theme; I used tire tread for the supports. Even when we venture forth on these pilgrimages, a significant part of the experience is driving between points of significance. In our rush to “see everything” we lose the opportunity to feel it, to find the spiritual connection that elevated these landscapes. The emerging shape of the treads is suggestive of that disconnection as well as the physical distance traversed to reach these locations. It is also worth noting that the treads were picked up off the highways, a tangible reminder as to the amount of litter working its way through the ecosystem. 

  Each of these bodies are physically present; the paint protrudes from the surface, fighting against the bounds that try to contain them. These spaces, the spiritual, the sublime, and even the mundane, have been cut off from our lives, relegated to distinct frontiers in actuality as well as in thought. What do we discover when we leave our contemporary lives for a time and immerse ourselves in these places that our ancestors held in such reverence? What epiphany will you have when you embark on a primal pilgrimage?