Artist Statement

It's always been difficult for me to answer the question "what type of painting do you do?" I was trained in college to be an illustrator. Then I served a three year apprenticeship based in classical realism. After that for six years I worked solely in the pastel medium and considered myself, a pastelist. My influences range from the French Academic master, Jean-Leon Gerome to the illustrator, Drew Struzan, and then back around to photorealistic grid paintings of Chuck Close. There are so many historical threads that make up the technique(s) that I use to complete my works that saying "I'm a classical realist" or "a trained illustrator" would simply not be accurate. If I was blunt, when asked, I would say "I try to paint briefly convincing lies." A playing card, by itself, is simply not that interesting. Put that same card in the hands of someone with training and skill, the card can flip, dance back and forth, and even disappear. Through the use of a learned skill something ordinary has been made into something extraordinary, something magical. My work is akin to what a magician does with a playing card. I take benign forgettable objects and through skill, I attempt to make you see that object in a new way. A way that is memorable, and if I've done it well enough, magical.

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." -Jonathan Swift

Artist Interview

1) What would I like people to know?

That I approach a painting as a start of a conversation of sorts. That each painting is like the window in a confessional booth. On one side sits the artist, the other side the viewer. If the painting works, the window opens, and the conversation starts.

2) Where do I go when the well is dry?

My work always starts with one object and one question “how can I make this interesting?” There is always something to paint. Chuck Close said “ Inspiration is for amateurs, professionals just get to work.”

3) Why do I paint what I paint?

Years ago when I started my apprenticeship, I was in class with a very talented portrait painter who now runs a school in Philadelphia. He was a third year when I was just a first year, and I asked him “What is it about portraits that you like to paint?” He simply said “it’s hard for me to see people just as people anymore. All I see is people that I want to paint and people that I don’t want to paint.” It was hard for me to understand that at first but after a few years down the road now I do understand what he meant. I think that I have always known that I didn’t want to be just someone who painted landscapes, portraits, or even still-lives. I wanted to be able to paint whatever I saw that moved me in the hopes that I could do it in a way that moved someone else.