I am not a member of the
creative
class. I don’t have a car, I don’t stare into a
laptop at coffee shops nor am I a member of any particular
scene. I do not design web pages, loathe the fact I own a
cell phone and I don’t know how to operate a DVD
player. I am an artist, I paint pictures and sell them for a
living.
I
have dedicated my life into producing a
body of work that represents my thoughts and feelings using such arcane
materials as oil paint, canvas and brushes. I refuse to use
Astroturf or Saran Wrap in my work and I am not interested in appealing
to the sensibilities of an art world that has long since lost any sense
of meaning and soul.
Instead,
I relate often satiric tales onto
canvas using the devices I have learned by studying the work of true
painters that came before me – Titian, Rubens, Beckmann,
DeKooning, Benton, and Levine and interweave narratives and historical
allusions into new tales of woe and revelations of a lost innocence and
omnipresent foreboding. I like to think of my paintings as
didactic in nature, but also wish for them to be enjoyed as much I as I
enjoy creating them.
I
like lush surfaces and the look and feel
of oil paint. I don’t shy away from the past, nor
do I feel I am bound to it, and approach every new canvas building a
composition that best correlates the thoughts and themes in my
head. Invariably, people start to develop, and other imagery
comes into being as the painting progresses. Soon, the canvas
begins to ask and demand things from me, and I must respond and react
as the vision matures.
I
feel simultaneously out of touch and
deeply imbedded with the world around me. I believe careful
reflection and observation of the world, combined with my
life’s experiences, has informed my paintings and I can no
longer separate them from my life. Acts of war, shallow
politicians, prostitutes, love and the cost of beauty are all equals on
my canvases. As my technique and ideas expand and contract
through constant practice, my paintings evolve and grow, and I hope
will continue to support my life in the years to come.
