Residency 1
June 2019

The “Commuter Series” is a drawing and painting practice made from brief observations of the Hudson River Valley: a meditation refocusing attention away from social media and crazy-making news during a daily, three-hour commute to-and-from New York City. Updating the plein air tradition, the intuitive exercises explore a series of relationships with the river: observations of nature, movement of the river, movement of the train along the shoreline, the moving physical body of the train-rider, the passage of time, and the changing of the seasons. As a series of small doorsiens, the works together become the windows of the train, showing an intimate glimpse of passing moments. Images are tightly cropped, graphic parts of a missing, larger scene, as the speed and direction of the train control the point of view. 

The physical process of excavating graphite out of a ground of scribbles keeps the work loose, allowing subconscious shapes to appear, as the mountains do out of the fog in the morning. Paintings made from these sketches are spontaneous exercises in abstraction using traditional materials: a painting-as-play approach that allows for experimentation, unanticipated discovery, and intuitive depth. With the hurried gesture of a hot-colored, abozzo emerging from beneath layers of glazes and greys, there is a contrast of energetic and subdued moods of the river, mirroring also, the middle-aged commuter, who momentarily excited by the natural vistas, might forget that the final destination is another routine day of work.