These images began out of a conversation I had with another artist about landscape paintings. I found landscape painting to be tedious and always struggled to talk about the genre with artists who worked this way. I set myself up with the challenge of making landscapes that would sustain my interest and succeed where I thought others had failed. I looked especially at the backgrounds of early Renaissance paintings because those artists were trying to imagine places they had not been, such as the Holy Lands. The fantastical nature of these images paired with the tilted up perspective of Chinese landscape painting and the Byzantine perspective of the Renaissance Sienese painters gave me something to think about. I also thought about a poster from my childhood room, which depicted a soccer field on a seamount with no protection to keep the ball in play. A team of forlorn players looked far down below into the water where their ball had landed. This is how I see destiny working. Something will always go wrong. So, at every turn, the edge of the earth plummets down to water or even more impossible plateaus. The plateaus are labyrinths and we are mice.
Born in Texas City, Patrick is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, 1991 (BFA) and University of Houston, 1995 (MFA). He is a fellow of the MFAH Core Program for two consecutive years and has shown locally and nationally for 23 years. He is a founding member of Sketch Klubb, a drawing/zine collective active since 2005.
