Avoiding emphatic statements, I hope my intuitive paintings convey an indifference to critical theory. In my work humor and pathos coexist within individual paintings, while influences as disparate as Pop, and Art Brut jostle, alternately obscuring and clarifying one another. Intense color, and aggressive patterning push beyond the moldings that structure the edges of my pictures. A tough skin of pigment on the wooden panels has the character of sign painter's enamel, but is in fact traditional oil paint.

Painting is a way of engaging the world, a way of looking, seeing and ordering. The geometry of architectural and natural forms provides a structure against which to manipulate paint.

The subject matter offers a human scale and context for the abstract dynamics of line, color, and texture. The aim is to carry the energy of the process of engagement through to the surface of the image, illuminating its presence.

The real content of the work is this process of engagement, a struggle of order and chaos.

I paint quasi-realistic people in abstracted settings from people's personal photos. People often feel like they know or have seen the subjects of my work. Not likely, unless you were drinking with those kids at beach-week, or were at that new years eve party in Austria. My subjects come mostly from internet photos albums and image search engines. The images I am drawn to have universal qualities that I collage into new and sometimes strange scenarios, way out of context of the original photos. I often wonder if an unwitting model is out there thinking, "I feel like someone is painting me."

Using a unique combination of assorted glues, hand-mixed inks, and varnishes, my intent is to create richly textured, luminescent abstract paintings that act as a kind of visual history. I am attempting to record specific memories from my past in the context of how I remember them now. The pattern and color choices are laid down deliberately and irreversibly thereby setting the emotional tone of the work.

I am interested in the power of imagery. I orchestrate photo shoots, take pictures and then paint them as large as time will allow. Painting is just an experiment. When it becomes complicated, it ceases to be fun.

A quickening of the search is the evolution of free will. An ordering of experience.

With this series of paintings, I employ the naïve language of toys, models, and plastic dolls to investigate the more unsettling realm of national and international political conflicts. Americans often experience these events solely through imagery absorbed from news outlets. From this safe distance, the presentation of such imagery elicits a range of responses including voyeurism, apathy, denial, self-concern, and impotent compassion. These paintings examine the relationship that develops between the image of conflict, and the consumer of that image.

Poetically depicting the nature of human thought, my paintings investigate impermanence, the invisible, and abstraction. Curiosity about the complex, ephemeral spaces “in between” drive my work. My subject is, in a sense, “formlessness,” as I imagine and visualize spaces unseen. Geometric and organic shapes form the visual language I use to fabricate images of seemingly empty space. In my current body of work, shapes derived from architecture, speed-driven organic marks, and layered color populate the picture plane.

My paintings and drawings typically include one or two figures involved in an improbable action or working at some curious task. Many of the pieces in this series comment on the act of seeing, the creative process, or some aspect of human experience. Strong lighting with deep shadows creates a sense of mystery while obscuring the identity of the men and women in order to direct the focus toward their activity.