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Tell us about yourself & how you became an artist
I grew up as an only child in a single parent home. Both parents were artists and art was always a big part of my life. I spent a lot of time by myself and was constantly drawing and painting and went to a lot of museums in childhood that taught me to value art from a very young age.
What is your art addressing? What kind of message do you want to convey through your art?
My work is really an acknowledgement of the wonders of nature, finding the microcosms within the macro. Vision is my most valued sense and through the act of looking I recreate the biomorphic forms and shapes that occur in the natural world. At the same time, I am also very interested in graffiti as an art form, and spent a lot of time observing wild style and the abstract form the letters took. I invented my own visual language through the interweaving lines I create and the message I try to convey through this attempt is that we are all one, and we are completely interdependent on each other and the world we live in.
“I invented my own visual language through the interweaving lines I create and the message I try to convey through this attempt is that we are all one, and we are completely interdependent on each other and the world we live in.”
What kind of emotions do you want to stir in your audience?
Contemplation. I really want people to see the interconnectedness of everything within the work, but also to experience my particular aesthetic. Often times people who are familiar with my work will be able to see the same shapes and forms that I do in the outside world.
What is your creative process?
I'm in love with the materials of paint. All of my concerns when creating art, are purely formal concerns and related to color, shapes, materials and aesthetics. When I create the "automatic writing" works, those are usually done in water media - I turn off the left part of the brain and just paint automatically, as if I'm writing. For the more planned out works - usually done in oils, I always choose color first and have a general idea of compostition, but then the dialogue comes from the act of painting itself. One brushstroke, one mark, informs the next and the painting becomes a series of call and response that I'm having with the work itself - the work tells me what to do next.
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3 words to describe yourself as an artist
dedicated, tenacious, passionate about art
3 words to describe your art
organic, abstract, graffiti
Your go-to music for when you're working?
90's hip-hop, 70's funk, jazz
Favorite movie or show?
Repo Man
Favorite color?
Green (but I don't paint with it very often)
Do you have a routine or ritual for when you're working?
no - I just dive in
Where / When / How do you get inspired?
I get inspired when I see really great art. For me, that is usually among the surrealist and abstract works of the 1st part of the 20th century, the Modernists - like Arshile Gorky, Roberto Matta and Norman Lewis. I also get really inspired by graffiti pieces (not to be confused with "street" art - but, rather, the works of people who have mastered a lettering style and have superb can control). I also love the works of contemporary Chinese painter Liu Dan, and the Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju. Anytime I am in nature - it inspires me greatly, that's why I live with tons of plants. I see endless patterns and designs in the way trees, leaves and flowers grow. I also am inspired by music and try to capture it's essence through painting and exploring the notion of synesthesia: the idea of seeing color from certain sounds.
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What makes you happy?
Painting and being in nature. Traveling.
What impact does living in New York have on you?
Endless inspiration from the energy of NYC, and the sense of urgency to always be producing
How has your art changed throughout your career?
In the early part of my career I felt I had to hide the influence of graffiti on my work. I don't do that anymore.
What do you want people to know about you or your art that we haven't asked?
My work is less about a personal reflection of me and who I am as a person, as it is more about an attempt to show people how to see the world through a creative lens. I have a very specific and unique aesthetic that I hope people can connect to on a visual level. I believe the continuous movement of the eyes when looking at my work with all of its complexity and intricacies can have a meditative affect on the viewer.
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