For the first thirteen years of my life I was an only child. It was then that I learned to create my own reality through art. My first access into the world of art came from my father. He would sit at his sketching table and meticulously illustrate items ranging from comic book characters to pictures of famous athletes. My own painting style developed later from a passion for minimalist artists such as Donald Judd and Richard Serra. I loved the idea that simple can be complex, that something like a square can have multiple meanings beyond a geometric shape. The space, the materials, the concept were all as important as the actual piece and technical skill became just another tool for me, not a means to an ends. Though my paintings at this time had common subjects such as people and still-lives; I had begun incorporating ideas personal to me and those brought forth by artists that I admired. Themes such as the feeling of isolation, what constitutes something as artistic, composition balance, and highbrow lowbrow principles were all explored in my works. With an honest love and appreciation of art unfolding, I realized that the art I enjoyed was different from the undergraduate studies I was learning. My teachers were not interested in art with a concept and instead focused only on technical skill. I wanted to not only improve my technique but also apply it to new works I saw happening in the contemporary art world.
I took a break from college and began working not only at “regular” jobs but also on the path of my art. In my last year at Humboldt State before I took my break, I had been struggling with bi-polar disorder, Epilepsy, and an inability to find a steady job. These major factors in my life at a young age fueled my creativity and inspired a large productive outpouring of paintings. My first paintings were a reflection of my recent personal troubles masked in symbols and metaphors that were familiar only to me. They were almost diary entries done in a language only I could read. At the same time that I made these personal works I also had the urge to make work that was enjoyable on a visual level to others due to the research of painters that were contemporary. As my confidence grew I began to lean away from strictly painting on canvas and incorporated collage work and mixed media. This was based on my own personal studying of artistic trends following the Impressionists.
Currently I am exploring the ideas of abstract expressionism in a controlled compositional environment. I tend to use acrylic paint for its fast drying tendencies and mixed media to reflect the constant information accessed from technology. I paint straight from the tube or mix it with a good portion of white to lighten the color and give it saturated qualities. I also enjoy painting on cardboard due to its accessibility and its frugal disposition. I believe that by using cardboard it is easier to bring out the conceptual tendencies of my paintings as its fragility emphasizes the idea and process more than the finished product. Cardboard allows breathing room for the casual observer, because it is such a common item; and to the historical art buff it has a long history of usage in the art world past and present. My goal as an artist is to create works that bypass all the necessary knowledge of the history of art that makes abstract expressionism and contemporary art difficult to the casual observer. I hope to create works that stand on their own as aesthetically pleasing while the viewer unknowingly is engaging in art with a historical context. The end goal is to create works that stimulate a viewer to want more research on the history of art if they don’t have it already and to understand that art is not only for collectors and museums but is something that can be enjoyed by anybody.

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