About the Artist

Why I Paint

My childhood consisted of moving around from place to place, which has had a beneficial effect on me as an adult I guess. I was born in Los Angeles County, California. While shuffling between California, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Colorado, I was given the opportunity to view my surroundings through different eyes. This showed me that my point of view was rarely the only point of view and that sometimes being removed from comfort is a quick and humbling way to enjoy the all-encompassing!

A unique moment in life occurred when I began to paint. I had always searched for a positive way to express myself, however fleeting. Painting rapidly became an obsession as I soon realized that what I had been looking for wasn’t at all what I was expecting. This creative means of expression didn’t have to be beautiful and it certainly didn’t have to make sense. It was most often spontaneous, surreal, and subconscious. This style of painting as I now understand it has been vividly explored and technically termed as Abstract Expressionism. However, painting in the moment is whatever I need it to be, regardless of the term. I do not feel the need to follow any artistic rules or format as this would cross grain dramatically with what I am trying to accomplish with my Art.

Most of my works include to some degree or another, light, dark, and the mirrored image of them both. I can’t help but process through reflection, however strange this may seem I have come to respect and relish in this oddity.  This processing oddity was most likely harbored while being physically surrounded by water throughout the often grim and or vaguely glamorous details of life’s experiences. Have it be the California coast, the ocean surrounding Hawaii, the rivers and lakes throughout Colorado and New Mexico, or the simple plastic kiddie pool in the backyard. I absolutely adore the water in every form it takes and have come to understand and rationalize why reflection plays such a vivid role in the form of Art I am attempting to create, discover, and master. Understanding the light and the dark side of my work begins a whole new revelation into which I hope to never fully understand, as I believe this might sterilize life’s mystery and somewhat absolve the passion for living.  Although, I do also currently believe that the light cannot exist without the dark.  Having been formidably taught that there can be little to no trust or true acknowledgement of the light without some degree of experience and understanding of the dark. There is an absolute value to be discovered between the two and the delicate balance they possess.

Why I Continue to Paint

Somehow this all comes together with a mistake that was made on what was then considered to be a typical night of frenzied manic painting.  Canvas was most often found spread across every tangible flat surface and if I happened to run out of room, I moved my paintings outside and continued as though it made perfect sense.  Even when the temperature fell below freezing, I continued, it mattered not as my passion for this new found salvation was overwhelming.  I now realize that I must have appeared completely mad and in all honesty was indeed exactly that.  Yet in retrospect I would not trade a minute of yesterday’s insanity for a moment of today’s bliss, as with that one incredible mistake I saw an artistic perfection that I could barely contain or control.

My desirous obsession with painting at that moment catapulted with a resounding desperation mixed with a feverish addiction to development and explore this new found technique.  This quickly began to transcend into something larger than anticipated as I no longer wanted to be the sole beneficiary of what I was attempting to accomplish.  I fell deeply into the pursuit of this thing called Art with fervor, as I saw first hand it’s immense benefit to the soul.  Art has brought me through some very dark times…  Since that time I have been chasing the imperfect perfection of a technique that was discovered by mistake, which has lead to my own personal transcendence.