The vocabulary of my artwork comes from the language of maps. These map symbols are crafted out of the same elements as those found in art.
The theoretical basis of my approach is defamiliarization: presenting something as both recognizable and foreign. It is engaged by using map symbols outside the reference of maps, synthesizing historically and culturally disparate symbols, and placing them in formats that have their own system of meaning. The latter of these approaches is sometimes accomplished by referencing the format and character of Chinese landscape paintings. Thus defamiliarization works in two directions, retreating simultaneously from maps and from landscape paintings.
A recent series employs the language of maps to represent journeys. These works draw from culturally, historically, and diverse types of maps of the terrain traversed on the journey. These works include references to the passage of time, changing conditions, and the experiences of the journey; hence, they become narrative history paintings.
