About me:
A fine artist creating original acrylic paintings, art photography and commissioned graphics, I was born and raised along Southern California’s dry and mountainous coast, but adult life found me moving deeper and deeper into the weirdly dense and frequently gritty urban sprawl of the Los Angeles megalopolis (go east, young man, because you can’t afford west anymore…). But, while experiencing this intense city, I was still working high above the dramatic city lights ringing Santa Monica Bay (and forming the “Queen’s Necklace”) and out exploring much of California’s incredible wild beauty.
Fascinating. And amazing. All of it. If not always…comfortable.
Constantly drawn to art, photography and design (“always drawing” was the childhood commentary), I returned to school and earned a Bachelors of Fine Art from LA’s Otis/Parsons Art Institute, but personal tragedy inhibited a bold leap into the new career…then. Nevertheless, occasionally, collectors and commercial clients found me.
Now, no longer in Southern California, my mate and I are inhabiting and exploring a very different (and wetter! and greener!) beauty and perspective in the Pacific Northwest. And with the new social and physical environment has come a renewed commitment to developing my professional art career–I just can’t not!
About my work:
Imagine: a love affair or an illness, a dream, a book or a movie, a hike or a riot, driving to work, growing older, experiencing a joy…or a trauma. It all goes into the ‘blender’ of my artist psyche and becomes images–seemingly simple, occasionally specific, always from living a life. Ideally, my work examines the richness and complexity of living a human life and seeks to ‘distill’ it into somewhat surreal, imaginative, evocative images–I want you to bring your life into the work.
Beyond that, my curiosity about whatever environment I’m experiencing and the rich creative history created by those before me prevent me from creating cookie-cutter work, so far–however beautiful. Instead, my work usually reflects my current circumstances and history and, I’m constantly experimenting with my craft–”methodically” to quote one of my teachers. A couple examples on the to-do list: the eery long shadows in early DeChiricos (and our northern latitudes), and the varying focus you see in many photographs. One more deeply important factor too: often the work starts making its own demands about where it’s going–if I’m wise, I follow its lead.
And then there’s all that wonderful digital technology… Fundamentally, I’m a painter, but have found a great deal of satisfaction in graphic illustration and digital photography. Right now it’s clear that these three disciplines are feeding each other in my work, but I’m just beginning to get a glimmer of how. I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops.
It’s a great big universe, filled with riches, from too small to see, to too big to comprehend. And living is such an odd experience, often paradoxical. Wonderful…and terrible, breathtaking…and boring–but always interesting.