16"x20" oil on panel. 2024.

This painting is from a series of "hyper-real" stilllifes of food. My goal in these paintings is to render the particularity and uniqueness of my subject matters in as convincing a way as possible. One of the benefits of painting food is that the hints at taste and smell serve to heighten the overall aesthetic effect of the painting. 

Cake decoration credit goes to the artist's daughter, whose favorite color is rainbow, and whose 5th birthday gave the cake its brief raison d'etre.

oil on panel, 10"x16", 2025

This is a recent painting from a series of potted plants. There are several things that have me excited to continue this series: Exploring the way the natural botanical forms express themselves within the confines of their limited space; The opportunities for subtle color play in the dance of shadows as the intertwining plants hide and reveal each other; The wild variation juxtaposed with repeating teleological patterns; Plants' innate tendency to orient towards light. 

The title of this piece in particular is meant to draw attention to the way these plants transgress their own potted boundaries to explore and caress their neighbors. One could, if one wanted, think of the pots as symbolizing the artificial boundary of the personal ego, while the action in the top half is about the desire to transcend it.

oil paint and 24K gold leaf on panel, 16"x24", 2025

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that the human capacity to experience beauty (together with the fact that the world offers so many opportunities for such experience) is one of the best hints we have that the world and our place in it is not mere cosmic accident. The existence of beauty indicates that there is a deeper order to things. Moreover, Kant insisted that the experience of beauty is fundamentally shareable with others. "Sensus communis" is his term for this capacity to understand the aesthetic experience of others. 

I don't agree with everything Kant said about art and beauty, but this point has always stuck with me. Whenever I see something beautiful, one my first thoughts is usually about who else in my life might appreciate this too. I wanted to paint a simple image to capture this concept. The rainbow scarf, being not just seen but synesthetically inhaled by the woman, symbolizes a hunger for the rich opportunities for aesthetic delight that human life gives us, while her delighted gaze at the viewer is meant as an invitation to share in the openness to such experiences. 

oil on panel, 11"x14", 2025

This painting is from a series of urban landscapes that aim to delight in the dense textures of our local environment. The paintings in this series are ultimately about time, memory, slow forgetting, and the way that populated spaces retain a trace of those who have passed by. Although these paintings do not depict any people, they are supposed to call to mind the countless individuals who have left their marks: The masons whose choices determined the patterning of the brickwork; the technicians who installed the cables transmitting energy and information; the people, whomever they are, who pass through these doorways at times unknown; the graffiti artists who literally left their mark.