In my current body of work I work with the idea of excess, when images of excess becomes meaningless and fall into the realm of pattern. This idea of gluttony is reflected in our current culture. We are a hedonistic society, always looking for more until the more we are looking for loses its meaning. I find inspiration in physical action, indulging in pleasure and pain, searching for my limit. These are early paintings that deal with similar ideas.

Collaborative outdoor painting installation with writer and curator Joe Young. Roughly 10' x 88'. Located on Falls Road.

Collection of small paintings from the past few years.

Commissioned Murals

The most recent manifestation of my interest in excess and epic narratives is my attraction to images of natural disasters. I am riveted by destruction and our culture’s fascination with the apocalypse. Epic devastation is constantly in our field of vision, documented and dramatized in the media and Hollywood. Our own obsession with the end of the world has permeated our psyche. I am intrigued by ancient civilizations’ predictions of our future. I use images of these natural disasters, as seen through our news and pop culture, to document the signs they foretold. Often, their idea of the end of the world was not a negative, only an awakening and a change of consciousness.

These are projects completed at Jentel Arts in Wyoming as an artist-in-residence over a one month period.
Attending artist-residencies are a big part of my practice. Being invited into a new space, within a new community of artists has fueled my work since finishing my MFA in 2008.

Research, reading and exploration are vital to my studio practice, consistently driving my work forward. I continuously seek and study epic narratives, creating my own for each work. I am fascinated with crowds of people converging in one space at one time. I am particularly intrigued by rituals that drive masses of beings to occupy the same space. I investigate various events and practices that bring large numbers of life forms together to discover how beings interact when driven together in mass quantities. This includes religious practices, festivals, holidays, political gatherings, orgies, etc. Recently I have been drawn to images of battles and duels, where opposing forces fight for the same space. I am interested in what drives us to violence and destruction of life.

Site-specific wall painting installations.

My studio practice has consistently been large-scale oil paintings, though I have begun to work directly on the wall exploring painting as installation. The dimension of my work relates to the size of the human body and the potential for painting to physically overwhelm the viewer. I work directly on the wall as I experiment closely with the architecture making paintings that engage floor to ceiling.

In the summer of 2013 I was a consortium resident at the Studio Art Centers International (SACI) in San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy. These 50 small paintings were done over the course of a month.