In my youth I would spend hours making meandering ballpoint pen drawings with my Dad. He also introduced me to various “underground” artists and illustrators like Frank Frazetta, HR Giger, R. Crumb as well as psychedelic surf art. My grandmother, an amateur painter led me to the bold colors and shapes of Georgia O’Keefe and Paul Gauguin. I studied photography and ceramics before landing on my longest held passion, painting.
I grew up in the little beach town formerly called “Grover City” on the central coast of California. My parents settled there in the late 70’s. Small towns are underrepresented in the greater art world my hometown’s meager art culture makes it no wonder. However, growing up at the beach had its advantages, and a peculiar influence. The leftover hippie vibes and the surrounding rural landscape made a lasting impression on me. Bordered by the unfettered coastline is a patchwork of wilderness and cropland homesteaded by opportunistic farmers of the previous century and worked by migrant laborers today. In childhood I remember gleaning tomatillos for salsa with my best friend and his mother, a retired farmworker. As an adolescent I recollect mid-day trysts at the sun-drenched rural outskirts, and trespassing at night to swim in heated pools at fancy resorts catering to tourists. Now my feelings toward the locale are divided. It is a bohemian vibrant paradise and simultaneously, a dull, conforming, safe, fenced off whistle-stop. Each having potential as pleasure trove and trap. My feelings ranging from celebratory to confined materialize in my paintings.
The relational emphasis between humans and landscape extends into my public artworks. My approach is to serve the surrounding community, acknowledging the land, its history, future and present moment as I engage people with artworks reflective of the environment in which they are located, creating a sense of place and belonging.
In my youth I would spend hours making meandering ballpoint pen drawings with my Dad. He also introduced me to various “underground” artists and illustrators like Frank Frazetta, HR Giger, R. Crumb as well as psychedelic surf art. My grandmother, an amateur painter led me to the bold colors and shapes of Georgia O’Keefe and Paul Gauguin. I studied photography and ceramics before landing on my longest held passion, painting. Now I am still painting but I am in a new place and I anticipate lots of growth change and editing of my bio and my practice. I want to get the most of graduate school by exploring my practice with greater depth and care as well as gaining the skills and experience to be an effective teacher for art students to come. "
