P. Hanson - Artist's Statement

Although best described as abstract, my work is content driven and addresses subject matter pertaining to history and myth, land and sky, and of observing and recording natural cycles. I am interested in the marks and symbols we use to explain the world, and in the methodologies of mapping and documenting. I use these as an expression of our attempts to order, to understand, to give meaning to natural phenomena, and of how we place ourselves in the world. There is an overall theme of reconciling the fragmentation of contemporary life with something deeper within the human psyche.

My work is raw. I use acrylic paint, charcoal, oil pastel, tape, pencil, and photocopy transfers. The application of these materials is one of layering and mark making. I begin most pieces with purposeful content, but this soon becomes obliterated by layers of paint and other materials. I build with shapes, and cover them up. Sometimes small fragments are left to suggest something beneath, something of the past. Content becomes material, mind becomes matter. The paintings are composites of shape and line, their surfaces reveal a history of both the physical activity and the thought process that occurs in the making of the work.