Notes from the Road

About This Series

In September of 2003, in search of inspiration and solitude I embarked on a self-financed, five-month landscape painting expedition through the United States. I had finished my studies at the Pennsylvania Academy and I felt a compelling need to experience more of the world, to test out what I had learned, and divide what was useful from what was dogmatic. Until that point I had never been anywhere west of Pittsburg.

Painting daily in plein air, I traversed twenty-five states. I encountered first hand the effects of light found in different regions and observed how the crystalline qualities of air at high elevations along the continental divide compared to the murky humidity of the deep south. The cumulative benefit of this exposure was a broadening of my artistic vocabulary. The paintings in this series represent a visual travelogue, a record of aesthetic discoveries.

The journals document discoveries of a different kind. They contextualize the sketches in a personal framework. I was by turns exultant, defeated, miserable, and ebullient. I spent many days and nights without talking to a single soul, only to find myself subjecting strangers to lengthy quandaries on the meaning of life. I set out to learn some essential things about painting and ended up learning about myself.

Click on the months above to view the journals