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Bio

Artist Statement

Introduction

About this Site

How has being a Breast Cancer Survivor so young affected your art work?

There is no single way to answer this question, but I can definitely say that survivorship has given me a new lease on life that surrounds my work ethic with gratitude and purpose. It has also propelled me to donate more work to charity auctions, run in the Race for the Cure, and stay more involved in the community.

Why are there no prices on your website?

I don’t mean to be candid about the prices of my artwork, but must respect the wishes of the galleries who represent me, and the ones who may represent me in the future. If a client is interested in a painting, or a gallery is interested in carrying my work, they must both make an inquiry before this sensitive information is released.

What’s the difference between your painting work in latex and oil?

I work in two ways: One is very quick, expressive, loud, and graphic, and the other is thoughtful, slower, and usually done in phases. I use these two media, latex and oil, to differentiate these two ways that I work, as I have largely assigned one working method to each- quick to latex, slower to oil. In latex, I have chosen a palette that I had always been drawn to for one reason or another. I use these colors repeatedly in whirlwind expressive artwork that touches my love for color and satisfies an acute creative urge. Latex paint is sculptural in nature, dries quickly, and is opaque and thus lends itself to a faster working process and less layering.

Oil paintings typically begin as underdeveloped, abstract ideas and change as they are worked on for longer. They more often than not reflect a concept that intrigues me, and will show evidence of the step by step nature of grappling with abstract ideas to a conclusion. A finished work in oil is an artifact of this process, and the conclusion is the image that is photographed and recorded as the image associated with the title, dates, medium etc. Oil invariably takes a long time to dry and is transparent, and working with oil in phases has proven its rewards to me time after time.

Why are your latex paintings priced so much differently than your oil paintings?

In my bodies of work, oil paintings are valued more highly due to their lengthy process and close proximity to the events of my life. In addition, the images made from oil use pigments and binders that last forever. Latex, though using high quality pigments, does not last forever- it has a life of 20 years on average. As a medium, it was meant to be used for only so long before being replaced with something new, fresh, and different.  In attempting to restore modern paintings using latex, modern art museums, restorators, and other establishments, are finding it impossible to restore. As a result, I price my latex paintings much lower than their oil counterparts. Additionally, I am pleased to do so to provide a completely different pricepoint to fine art, allowing folks who can’t afford to spend thousands on a beautiful piece to acquire something of megalithic size for their living room, dining room, or wherever they might need it. Its affordable, and not unfairly so.

Why don’t you do more installation?

Installation, to me, is based on site-specific opportunity. Either a show has a theme, and for that I propose an installation, or I “install” objects somewhere and document it as video or images. Photography in this instance, is not so different from installation, as it is simply choosing to record an image based on explicit and implicit relationships of the subject and contents implied therein on all levels. Sometimes I use photography to satisfy my urge to install. Other times I wait for shows. I expect to use video more in the future, after a truly inspiring visit to the Whitney Biennial ’08. I am looking for opportunities for video installation.

Do you work on your art full-time?

I wish! But I have a great job as a web developer for MIS, Inc. as a web developer, where I am constantly learning new things to aid my efforts on the web.