The sun falls and the firmament darkens around us. A million tiny holes reveal themselves in the sky. Only it's not the sky that is illuminated but the landscape around you. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” The urban night sky has become a grotesque pastel black while the landscape below has become a new constellation of lights reflecting the values of the society that built it. As we bear witness to an environment that is becoming increasingly hostile to human life. A large portion of our population has already lost one of our most treasured natural phenomenons. The night sky has silently been taken away, a consequence of relentless urbanization and light pollution. Where once there were stars and planets, now street lights and headlights cast their artificial constellations, crafting new celestial maps on our urban landscape. Bearing witness to this destruction lacks the normal theatrics of the apocalypse. “And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.” The stars have already fallen to earth and no one even noticed.
My primary interest is our changing perception (past and present) and collective alienation from the night sky. From an earth centric firmament to the latest scientific discoveries. Science, myth, folk lore, and fiction fuel my artwork. Painting is my primary medium. I use layered image transfer techniques reminiscent of frescos. This technique reflects the luminosity of stars as well as the deep dullness of an urban night sky. I am excited by experimentation and by pushing materials beyond their conventional boundaries. This experimentation, while subtle, often results in a loss of control that helps me come to terms with my own anxiety.
My artwork reflects this destruction, dislocation and nostalgia for a remembered landscape. The anxiety of existing in a world where nowhere feels like home, neither physically nor spiritually. Suggesting that our estrangement from the dark skies and the stars is not just a loss of beauty, but a loss of our inherent connection to the universe and our home on earth. This loss is more than an aesthetic concern; it impacts wildlife, human health, spirituality and our very sense of place in the cosmos. I am conscious of my own unfamiliarity with the night sky. Ultimately “I could not recognize a single constellation; in this region of the galaxy the sky was unfamiliar to me.” Traveling the universe the night sky will be ever changing. But even at home on earth the night sky is unfamiliar to me as if I were living in another galaxy.
