Exploring the human experience with surreal and visionary art. 

Artist Statement

My work is inspired by spirituality and inquiry into the human experience. The intangible realm inside us offers an infinite number of questions and ideas that can be further investigated with visual interpretation. I attempt to ask questions, provoke thought, and stir emotions by creating imaginary scenes using abnormal placements and combinations of realistic objects.

My art might be characterized as surreal, but the foundation of my art practice is realism. A surreal image will have more impact if the fundamentals of realism are understood first. For this reason, I committed myself to learning the foundational skills of art and I continue to learn more. Photography also plays a role in my creative process. Since the images I create come from my mind, it is necessary to collect multiple reference photos which I combine when composing the image as a sketch. However, this is basically where the technology stops. I work by hand as much as possible and believe in challenging my mind and eye to solve visual problems. AI is not involved in any part of my creative process. I also do not use AI to write. Any writing on this website is in my own words.

My medium of choice lately has been colored pencil, though I do also work in other mediums. Colored pencil offers a lot of control and an ability to render detail, manners in which I prefer to work. A downside is that the medium can contribute to an already slow process. My drawings begin as a composition sketch in a sketchbook and then become a larger graphite line drawing. Sometimes I use grids to draw the line drawing, sometimes I draw the line drawing by eye, and sometimes I use a combination of both. The line drawing is transferred to a final piece of paper, and then I begin adding color. Many layers of color are added, sometimes up to ten layers, before I feel an area is finished. Even though the process is time consuming and challenging, I find the final result quite rewarding. An image I saw in my mind now exists in our world!