Artist Statement

Statement for My New Work, the Cookie Landscape Painting Series

I take whimsy very seriously.

I’ve always loved art that makes someone stop, do a double-take, laugh or smile, and remember what it’s like to be a kid again, when things were new and surprising. That’s why I enjoy painting trompe l’oeil-style pieces and what prompted my new Cookie Landscape series. The paintings are flat but painted to look three-dimensional at a glance. They require an incredibly time-consuming and sophisticated painting approach, but whimsy is at the center of each design, triggering emotions of joy and wonder.

To create the pieces, I first design, bake and decorate real-life cookie and frosting models, sometimes with additional edible elements like pretzels or candy. I keep a sketchbook full of ideas, pulling from memories, dreams and idealizations, and then combine them into a sort of cartoon cookie scene come-to-life. I then dedicate dozens or hundreds of hours to painting them in a convincing way, slightly oversized from the original models and consisting of dozens of translucent layers of acrylic paint. The paintings look intensely three-dimensional, particularly in person due to how the light passes through the translucent paint layers and back at the viewer.

If nothing else, I aim for a bit of surprise, whether in the vibrant paint layers, the whimsical subject or the three-dimensional illusion. It takes that moment of knowing that we don’t know everything and are still capable of being surprised and filled with delight to help us see the possibilities all around us. I think the world needs that right now.