Darn Tall Mounds is the first oil painting where I have relied almost entirely on thin washes and layers to construct forms and colors. Working with layers in a way that is likely inspired by my recent interest in serigraphy, I have learned about the processes of scraping and rubbing with various tools to add and remove paint. I have also discovered how different processes of addition and subtraction function to cover, reveal, alter, and blend as a result of interaction between layers. 

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Lately, I have been looking at the whimsical landscapes of Wayne Thiebaud, David Hockney, and Thomas Hart Benton to influence my own paintings. I am interested in how these artists have mutated their perceived landscapes by warping planes and re-assigning color. Abstracting an imaginary landscape is both freeing and incredibly challenging at once. I am given the opportunity to design the physical law of a place, but making that place believable or recognizable means it needs to be tethered to the laws of earth as well. Especially when working without a reference image, the balance between the real and the imaginary can be difficult to uphold. 

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