ABOUT:

I do not remember a time in my life that I did not know that this was what I was going to do. Abstract painting was not where I started.

I was always a gifted “artist”. My father is a chemistry professor. My mother is a pianist. Both are teachers and both are lifelong history nerds, as am I. I began my long journey as an artist depicting civil war battle scenes from the parks that my family ritualistically pilgrimaged each summer. I was completely enthralled with the little dioramas of the battles. The 3-d figurines and accompanying landscape paintings were a way to control and stimulate my imagination. I would spend hours at night drawing those battles that I read about and studied.

I later painted at the local community college where my mother taught. Under a very influential painting professor, I began to explore art history and the fundamentals. This was my path through a turbulent adolescence. It saved my life in many ways. I would eventually complete my BFA in Painting at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. My work at that time was very literal in theme and depiction. It was very busy and of “maximal” layered visual contrasts and symbolic concepts. Through compositional overload and imagery I developed a layered narrative of my life and family history. I was not very good at separating the interconnectedness of influential events and the defining elements that influenced those experiences.

This was the beginning of my career defining approach and personal aesthetic. I still think and relate this way. The inseparable complex web of a life’s events and intertwined lineages as a human, is to me, comparable to the organic development and evolution of the natural world. Infuse that rational and a strong dose of spiritual intuition and you might understand my philosophy of abstract painting. It is a journey. Each and every time. A painting is a series of actions, reflections, and responses. Through much trial and error, as well as instinct, a new creation is born. Individually, my paintings are not formulaic, but largely an unknown pilgrimage into somewhat new territory. Otherwise there is simply no integrity. The willingness to fail and the progression of layered failures is the rich foundation and atmosphere where my final conclusions dwell. There usually is an exhausting tug of war that ensues at a critical crossroads in a painting. It is at this place that the new “piece of art” is spawned. It is crucial. Once in a while a painting just flows into existence and every aspect of the creation process is fluid and absolutely correct. That is the rare gem. I do not love these pieces the same way I love the hard won successes. They are perfect in form and movement, but it is the debilitating struggle that makes me fall in love.

I have had multiple career paths in order to survive and explore through the arts. Movie set painting, theatre set painting, Theme Park ride painting, sign painting, and finally owning and operating a mural company for commercial applications. These have been the most influential to my personal creation process. The knowledge gleaned through my commercial experiences have had a big impact, on both, my approach to physical application of materials and my understanding of the diverse range of mediums that I embrace. I am comfortable with my knowledge of unorthodox art mediums and chemistry by which I alter the physical compositions of those mediums. Again, trial and error.