As Artists

As artists, specifically painters, we are inevitably asked two pertinent questions…what subjects and in what style do we paint? And it is with those two questions that we, as artists, probably stumble the most in searching for the most accurate answers. Ask us to speak about any other topic of the arts and a wellspring of ideas, opinions and observations will pour forth with little pause. I am certainly no exception. As an oil painter, and as a realist, finding the proper foothold to explain my work should be right on the tip of my tongue. The ideologies and insights to which I dedicate myself and my work have no difficulty finding me; however, personal explanation is ever elusive.

As artists, we come armed with ideas. Then, it is in our laps to find the media that will best give them life and body. For me, the greatest cause to pursue through art is to reflect, question, and record pivotal moments, pivotal choices we as humans have historically made and will continue to make because it is our nature. Costly choices made because we were seduced and blinded by the lust of things coveted, or more subtly by our own misguided sense of enlightenment. As people living in the 21^st century, many of us wish to believe we have climbed above social inequities, religious bigotry, violence, and even the basest of human corruption -- greed. We have come to a place where daily news reminds us that, yes, a few still unabashedly embrace these failings, but more profoundly, the majority of us miss the more subtle of these corruptions that lie within each of us as we live our daily lives.

Choosing to work in the medium of oils since college, I have grown to appreciate the lushness, richness, complexity, and seduction that only painting with oils allows. A medium that since its’ creation seven centuries ago has not only chronicled the greatness and depravity of man, but ages much as we do – gracefully in some cases, cracked and creviced in others. Oils are much more than a medium to record...they have a life that, over time, is reminiscent of us.

My very existence revolves around my love for painting. I have spent my time painting what I know. There is an undeniable beauty to the human body that can convey a richness of spirit and there is a part of humanity underneath that fears, lusts, and yearns for more….that hungers to be worthy of being remembered and that fears failure.

I choose to paint moments of human frailty in the hope of coaxing that inner whisper of greatness into the light.