My life as an artist began when I threw away my paintbrushes.
In 1993, under the mentorship of internationally known artist Wosene Kosrof, my brushes were taken away and replaced with palette knives. I have not used a paintbrush since. My work has evolved over the following fifteen years, from painting thinly on paper to covering custom gallery-wrapped canvases with thick explosions of texture and color.
Texture is an essential element to all of my work and has been referred to as virtual “sculpture on canvas.” Waves of paint swirl up to three inches off the surface of the canvas. Texture is my way of inviting viewers into my paintings...to feel as though they are within the three dimensional surface.
My work represents the passion I have for life: vibrant and bold. My work is driven by color and my relationship with color. I believe that color is a subconscious medium—and internalize everyday experiences, encounters, and emotions and then release them through the colors in my paintings. Every finished work needs to be balanced and it needs to flow. Each color in a painting has its own voice, its own purpose.
In 2006, as part of my Lakehouse Series, I began to take Detail photographs of small cross-sections of my paintings. This allows me to create new compositions from the original work and highlights the visual and sensory experience of the canvas. If my paintings are a forest, then my Details are its trees.
My hope is that each person who experiences my art will find his/her own message inside the painting. Art should reflect each person’s own internal life.