Statement

I am not a painter.  I am an Artist. Indeed, I use classical oil painting techniques but I also use graphic design and sometimes collage as parts of my artistic vocabulary.  My work fuses traditional portraiture and figurative representation with pop culture iconography to produce a contemporary vision.  I use graffiti art, abstract color fields, collage, printmaking and other techniques to say exactly what I want to say.  I think artists should be well versed in multiple areas of discipline so that they can choose what works best in a particular situation. There are things that can be said in abstract art that cannot be said in realistic art, and vice versa. I am following in the tradition of my heroes, Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso who developed many forms of articulation.

I work in a style that I call “Combinism”.  It is a style, in which two or more techniques are used to produce a single image.  I usually use a form of realistic painting juxtaposed with abstract design or Pop Art.

I specialize in representing pictures of women while examining celebrity, erotica, beauty standards, sexual objectification and spirituality.  Creating images of women allows me to express myself honestly.  My work also serves as a source of introspection.  “What compels me to create images of women in such an obsessive and compulsive way?”  “What is the social and historical significance of my work?”  “What am I trying to do?”  These questions are never fully answered while working on a piece. I am not overly concerned with the answers, but rather the journey to find them.  My ultimate goal is to allow my mind and hands to work together to produce Art.