Artist Statement 1995 - 2005

Over the past few years, my artistic sensibilities have been greatly stimulated by a deliberate focus on both the incessant staccato of commercial media images that pervade our culture, and, conversely, the timeless and understated masterworks of western classical painting.  Within the context of this visual dichotomy, further splintered by a concoction of the commonplace, the perverse, and the profound, I find myself sifting through a seemingly endless maze of imagery, in search of intriguing motifs.  My artistic quest seems, all at once, to be both engrossing and quixotic.  For me, painting serves to both encapsulate my inner yearnings and satiate a zealous artistic appetite. 

That being said, my approach to the craft is very much in a straightforward and traditional manner.  Using one or two penciled thumbnails to articulate my ideas, I eventually render a full-sized cartoon, which is then transferred onto the stretched canvas.  My actual painting methods are essentially indirect, with a systematic layering of opaque, semi-opaque and transparent passages.  Starting with opaque neutral base layers, I work progressively into finishing topcoats of saturated transparent glazes.  I use bristle brushes for most of the initial blocking, and gradually transition to sables for the more nuanced paint applications.  

Any statement on myself as an artist, or my art, could not be complete without mentioning the constellation of masters whose work has served as steady guide to my own efforts.  The most obvious influences would be from the Surrealist School (specifically, those of Dali, Tanguy and Matta). However, the twisting sinuous figures of Klimt, the melancholic architecture of De Chirico, and the evocations and lyricism of Burchfield's watercolors also hold an immense fascination for me.  These, and other past icons, have certainly created a rich and superb historic well upon which I draw continual inspiration.