I am an artist who enjoys painting people and animals and have done so since I was a child. I am attracted to subjects that are both powerful and beautiful. I attempt to imbue my work with a meaning and depth that transcends the recognizable objects that inhabit the canvas. I aim to communicate with viewers using the subjects of my paintings as symbols and story-tellers. Oil paint is my favored medium, but I am always willing to experiment and I have recently begun incorporating digital medium into my workflow.

I consider myself a self-taught painter despite having attended art school. I was an art school student at a time when representational art was basically ignored by academia. Attending my various required art history classes put this dismissive attitude in context for me, but it didn’t make the pursuit of my passion any easier. So like many other artists who preferred realistic drawing and painting to its abstract alternative, I resorted to a commercial arts curriculum and continued to practice my more ambitious painting at home. God bless the refugee camp that was Illustration 101.

Inspiration and influence for my work comes from an eclectic array of stimulating encounters; sometimes it’s the prose of a novel or the thumping base of song, often it’s the color of the sky, or a poignant story of loss or inequity from the local news. It’s not uncommon for me to write my own stories to provide fodder for a cast of new painting subjects. Regarding other artists who inspire and humble me, I am a great admirer of Caravaggio (master of shadows) and John Singer Sargent (seducer of oil paint). The work of contemporary artists which readily commands my interests include the human sensitivity of Dean Mitchell and the dark, ironic figures of Phil Hale.

My future goals as an artist revolve around growth and discovery and finding and creating more opportunities to engage the public with my work.