I see art as a means of connecting with people, understanding them, and being understood by them. It is an interaction in response to each other and the place we live.
As an artist, I am first and foremost a composer. I am drawn to music because I look for mathematical beauty and rigor in my projects, but also because I need to communicate, even through languages that can be as multivalent as they are precise. Music is the intersection of coded speech and deductive reasoning, and it allows me to develop a craft that speaks to an audience.
The application of craft is integral to the art that interests me and to the music I create. Rendering raw concepts aesthetically valuable often requires skills that, although derived from a shared tradition, become personalized. The time spent mastering those skills is palpable in the finished product, convincing others that the underlying concepts were worth the artist’s investigation, and could be worth our own. But the role of craft in art is more than validation and salesmanship. Underlying concepts change as they are rendered, as does our relationship to them. Therefore, if my music explores abstract concepts through analogy and representation, then craft is how creative understanding is accomplished.
The concepts I explore are both personal and social. Art, and particularly music, is a conversation, which will only be interesting to the people whose perspectives are represented. So I listen to the people I know best, whose lives respond to a shared environment, and I find ways to engage the ideas, emotions, and beliefs we represent. In short, I am interested in art that provides a forum for community.