Artist Statement

I define many of my paintings
as ‘time capsules’.

Many of my artworks have ten or more layers beneath the surface, indicative of the passage of time and the creative process, which are meticulously documented.

Like time and music, my work has movement that leaves a trail of evidence beneath layer upon layer of oils, wax, and glistening resins. Each series that I develop expresses the reality that each of us as individuals — and as citizens of communities, cultures, and nations — has a unique back-story that informs our present, even if only traces remain of what came before.

When collectors purchase one of my paintings, they are actually purchasing a multi-layered collection of all the paintings and scenes within their many layers of imagery, symbolism, ideas, and emotion. The crux of this approach harkens to the tradition of what the Italians call pentimenti: the ghosts of images hidden beneath a painting’s surface.

Today, with the aid of radiographic imaging, we can peer through the histories of masterpieces by Renaissance masters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo and see the rough drafts that went into the making of the final images. I believe it is important for viewers and collectors to possess evidence of the stages or scenes the paintings pass through on their journey into their present forms. Using high-resolution images and video editing programs, I document the geological and archaeological strata that build up as the pieces evolve in my studio.

This approach to my work comes naturally. Having earned a degree in printmaking at San Francisco Art Institute, I am familiar with the constant dialogue between additive and subtractive processes which mirrors the interplay between human actions in the present and past. This cannot literally be seen but affect everything that we do and who we are.

Running parallel to this method are additional series such as my collages and re-imaginings of works by other painters. These deal with appropriation and credit, issues that gained notoriety in the work of contemporary artists such as Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine.

I also have an ongoing portrait series, which I began in 1994 while living in Prague, Czech Republic. In another series I created a new pigment from soil in the Dundee Hills wine-making region of Oregon. By literally integrating the grape-producing terroirwith the aesthetic process, I am telling the back-story that precedes the enjoyment of a fine wine.

Across the range of my work I have been influenced by graffiti and by historical artists as varied as Bosch, Ernst, Picasso, and Warhol. I often reference cultural phenomena and current events in my pieces and do not shy away from controversial socioeconomic and political topics. These have included the global economy, the symbolism of the American flag, the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, and the Italian murder trial of American citizen, Amanda Knox.

Some of my works include an interactive element, with gallery-goers invited to add text to pieces, contributing even more depth to a painting’s rich history.Ultimately my paintings are metaphors for life itself: a process of change and growth tethered to the past and the constant present.