Artist's statement
I have been living in Tucson and making art for over 20 years. I am a self-taught artist and began drawing while living on the streets as a teen-ager. One of my early memories is when I was about 15 years old. I was sitting on the sidewalk in Bellingham, WA panhandling for beer and sketching in my drawing book. A man walked up and invited me to go to a live figure drawing class at the WWU. He paid the $3 and drove me up the hill to the college. I have no idea who he was or where he is now... but I have thought about it many times since. What a special thing to do for a punk kid, and I will never forget that simple act of kindness, out of the ordinary.
I started painting in my 20s and began taking art more seriously. My favorite mediums have always been oil painting and welding. Originally I made art just for something to do and to try and make something "cool". One of the things I love most about art is that anyone can do it. It might seem like some kind of club that you aren't invited into but that is not real. If you want to make art you just do it. I have a great passion for knowledge and reading. This inspires many of my paintings. Many times I use symbolism and metaphor to explore the ideological landscape that creates our society. I believe one of the jobs of the artist to think deeply about social issues and critique culture. Not every painting needs to be full of meaning, sometimes the goal is just to make something beautiful or communicate emotions. Painting is a great medium to do this with, because it allows the expression of abstract thoughts that might be lost if they were simply described using words. I try to make it so that my paintings can be appreciated either on this deeper symbolic level or simply for aesthetic enjoyment. I also like the unpredictable nature of the artwork. Many times someone will see something in one of my paintings that is completely different from what I meant to say. It is wonderful when this happens, and hopefully my descriptions do not prevent the viewer from having their own experience with my art.
Oil Paint Process
Each piece has it's own needs, and so I try to stay present during the creative process, giving each work what it needs. Sometimes I use free-hand sketches to begin a painting, or sometimes I use a grid method for an accurate layout. Some works are loose and spontaneous, while others are rendered meticulously from carefully selected reference images which are usually digitally manipulated to fit the artistic vision.
Education
DIY seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life. In 2000 I applied to the Art Academy here in Tucson. Unable to get grants or loans, I decided to learn as much as I could in spite of the bastards. So I developed a routine of walking to Cuppuccinos coffee shop each morning with some art books and start my day by reading about art history and theory for an hour or two before heading home to paint for the rest of the day. Later on, once I was on the internet, like a lot of people, I embraced the new digital world of easy information offered by sites like Wikipedia, etc... I began reading about anything that would come to mind. How is concrete made? Why cant you weld on cast iron? Oh and can I read stuff from that guy Socrates?? In 2004 I was accepted into the Art Academy at Pasadena, CA. This was a dream come true for me. But as I was about to move there for classes... low and behold I couldn't get any loans or grants. I probably dodged a bullet in spite of myself. Since then I have become a believer that the search for knowledge and education is the birth-right of every human. Institutions do not own any patent on our desire to learn. Unfortunately too many of us grow up thinking that information is something that "they" own and that "we" must petition them to grant us a right to it. I do realize that there are many skills that can be learned a hell of a lot faster in a school, but it was never in the cards for me to have that opportunity. So you do what you can with what is available to you, right? Self taught, Always growing, always learning.