Gunscapes in oil paint

In November 2018 I began painting guns to look like landscapes. Working with the well known Dutch artist Sam Drukker as my mentor, I focused on form, colour and texture. By blending two subjects together and by not looking at my paper while drawing, I found a path towards working more abstractly. This has created room in my mind to begin asking questions about atmospheric perspective, semiotics, the effect of giving forms multiple readings, and symbolic use of colour. I am searching for ways to create depth without relying on perspective and shading. As the wife of a soldier, violence is an unavoidable topic in my life. I question how human violence forms society and nature. Is violence a natural unavoidable phenomenon or can we some day evolve into a peaceful species?

The tensions that arise in my paintings -- landscape versus gun, tranquility versus anxiety, beauty versus hideousness, depth versus flatness, opacity versus transparency, control versus random effect, naturally occurring pigments versus man made pigments -- these are the means by which I attempt to question how our minds transform what we see into something we can understand and objectify.