My art is mostly the play of light and texture of landscape elements such as oil jack pumps, utility poles and wires, city structures, twisted tree trunks, and the surrounding atmospherics. My approach is based on interpreting rather than replicating what is observed. It is the freedom to explore, to create what one feels, to embrace inadvertent paint drips and marks, and to accept unfinished borders as part of the finished piece.
I was born in Idaho and raised in Southern California coastal communities, where I was surrounded by images of hazy ocean skies, tall city buildings, orange groves, and large oil jacks along the sandy Pacific Coast Highway. I study illustration with a biomedical emphasis at California State University, Long Beach. I had previously studied drawing, painting, graphics, and printmaking at numerous local community colleges and universities. University of California, Irvine and Fullerton are notable. The experience shaped my artistic thinking, skills, and vision.
While attending college, I worked in the graphic and print industries for various newspaper and magazine publications, such as Surfer Magazine, Motocross, Orange County Register Publications, and Coca-Cola. At one point I had my own graphic art business. My experience in commercial printing and graphic design influenced my own unique artistic style and voice.
Now I live in Tucson, Arizona, surrounded by an amazing textured panorama of twisted tree trunks, cacti with blooms that open at night, vibrant color palette skies, and massive, bubbly, towering clouds that explode water across the desert. These free Sonoran Desert gems have enhanced my art and thinking, for which I am thankful. With each piece, I am reminded of the first time I held a pencil and had fun visually expressing myself and the world around me. The artist continues.
My works have been exhibited nationally in various museums and galleries, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas, as well as in online galleries and magazines internationally. And has received Best in Show, Artist Choice, First Place, Second Place, and Bronze Awards. Many are in private collections.
