Artist Statement, July 2006

My most recent body of work called Soupcon talks about the act of looking at history. Although these paintings rely more on surface than image to visually express historical reference, the dark marks superimposed on the aged surfaces are from specific images. They are heavily edited bits of patterns copied from old photographs of native women and children wrapped in trade blankets. These patterns have been abstracted to the point they become sections of tracks similar to those left by rubber tires on a sidewalk or intersection; traces of activity that happened before us.