The direction of my work has been focused for the last 4 years on a subject I would call grotesque representational.  An idea to work with a subject of disfigured animals has evolved many times over into the work I am currently creating.  I have added the human element into the deformed equation.  The characters I create are socially unaccepted and have thus been exiled from their communities.  Eventually they find solace high up in the trees, where they wait on the soft comfort of a variety of couches and chairs.  It is there that they choose their own destinies:  befriending local primates, exploring their surroundings, or even braving the far climb down to face an unwelcoming past.  It is with those few that the empty couch signifies their unknown departure and demise.  These works, which forego a protagonist, become archeological sites where a whole new set of questions emerge.

The empty couch which screams of an absence becomes the focus.  The couch twists and contorts in space.  I began thinking about the tree being the center of gravity for the object.  The couch became a rubbery sort of idea in my mind where the framework would not have to be as stiff as reality would know it.  It is in this mindset that shadows, reflections and folds of upholstery became more relevant.  Without the characters as the subject, the couch became the character and came to life.  These moments of intense complexity and analysis have been vital to this project and to me as an artist.