ARTWORKS
I WORK IN MULTIPLE SERIES OF PAINTINGs, drawings, and mixed media PIECES. A common thread that leads me through each series is the desire to interpret and translate the experience of existence.
Whether by observing nature and human beings or trying to depict an intuitive vision, I am interested in questioning reality. My ideas and spiritual inspiration come from my attraction to nature, design, physics, the male body, and the concept of transformation.
series
portraits
This series of PORTRAITS began at the onset of the COVID pandemic. In the midst of uncertainty, I painted a self portrait and it led me to paint portraits of friends, family, and people who submitted photos of themselves during quarantine and thereafter.
Portraiture remains a large part of my painting practice and has evolved to include working with in-person sessions. Portrait commissions are welcomed and pricing depends on the scale, materials, and details requested.
CONTEMPLATIONS
CONTEMPLATIONS is a series about existential thinking. Sets of questions are found, repeated, and eliminated. Each time you come to read them, the impact changes depending on your state of mind at that moment.
I am inspired by the spectrum of anxiety and possibility. A negative thought can be replaced by a positive thought. Sometimes we just need to ask ourselves the simplest and often times hardest questions to get to the root of who we are.
QUANTUM
The concept of QUANTUM energy is something that came to me through my study of Astrology. The core idea is about invisible forces that make up light and matter.
I play around with simple forms in space by making multiple drawings and even small 3-D models to compose the oil paintings that make up this series. The repeat colors of red, pink, yellow and white are used to symbolize life source as dynamic forces. The forms depicted can appear static or moving depending on how you view them.
land
I like to interpret landscape painting in a contemporary way. A broken tree trunk also has a landscape of its own. The view outside my apartment window is a landscape. An empty Los Angeles street is a landscape. Nature is the primary subject but it never ceases to amaze me when its beauty is accentuated or corrupted by its surrounding environment.
The LAND series continues to evolve and includes works on paper, paintings on panel, and drawings.
GO DO IT
GO DO IT is a personal extension of my Quantum and Contemplation series. When confronting the existential questions that I posed to myself, I was overwhelmed with anxiety and the urge to do something about it.
Most of these works are based on visions that I had when feeling the internal forces at play. The quantum temples are painted from 3-D models that I made to express the way waves move through light and physical structures. They are at once solid and ephemeral.
dog days
DOG DAYS is a series of works based on masculine gay themed images that I was drawn to on media sources including Instagram. The underlying mood are the feelings that I associate with the ‘dog days of summer’: a mix of boredom, exhaustion, solitude, sex, fantasy, and longing.
This series includes an atypical mixed media artwork ‘Dog Days Night’ where I used sequins fabric to create a frame for the work on paper.
WHERE AM I?
WHERE AM I? That is the central question to this series about the disorientation of the body. Composed pieces of cardboard are the surface material for oil paintings that function as sculptures that can be installed in various configurations in a room.
As with the idea of quantum energy, I am driven by the idea of pushing through space in flexible and mysterious channels. This allowed me to experiment with painting in new ways.
the men
THE MEN is a series reflecting my relationship to my sexuality. As a gay man, it is not my intention to exclusively make ‘gay art.’ It is a facet of my life that manifests in my artworks. In this case, it is a very obvious and explicit manifestation.
During the short period of making these works, I was working through my emotions after a break-up. I made many drawings that flowed quickly into oil paintings. Feelings of sexual frustration, loneliness, insecurity, confidence, and freedom guided me.
MEDITATIONS
MEDITATIONS is about enlightenment from within and from without. The practices of meditation and yoga greatly influence how I live my life. The male character I invented in my drawings wanted to perform various poses, often times impossible positions.
From the many drawings I have made of this man, there is a unifying theme of wanting to ground himself within the serene horizon. The painted versions are developed on the stronger compositions as well as serving as studies for further exploration.
THE DEATH OF THE SELF YOU DON’T NEED
This series is a deeply personal expression of self transformation. I experienced a death to an older version of myself that I realized I didn’t need any longer. This concept is symbolized in the Tower card of the Tarot as well as the meaning of non-attachment in Buddhism.
Resistance and surrender serve as the main components of my process of growth as I entered into the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING
Living in New York City in 2013, I was acutely aware of the phrase IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING, which was written all over the subway. I also felt particularly lost at this time because I had just graduated from graduate school and was struggling with my painting practice.
The speckled subway floor and studded patterns became a motif that I integrated into this small series of figures that highlight an ominous mood.
F I G U R E S
FIGURES is the foundation of my art studio practice. This series is mostly comprised of the paintings that I made in the undergraduate program at UCLA.
I was interested in the interactions between the youth that surrounded me during this very formative time in my life. Themes of gender and sexual ambiguity are emphasized in the cropped compositions exploding with color and gestural strokes. I played around with materials, using both oil and acrylic paints.
DISCO
Soon after moving to New York City in 2008, I became fascinated with the disco ball. A friend of mine brought a good sized one home and I knew I wanted to paint it.
This DISCO series is based on my compositions of the actual disco ball with chains as well as source photos I would take at various night clubs. I was primarily interested in capturing movement and the refraction of light in a sultry, dark romance.
MY FAVOURITE THINGS
MY FAVOURITE THINGS is a colorful, if not chaotic dive into my interpretation of the exciting visual stimulus of New York City. Similarly to the Disco series, I was really interested in depicting the play of light as theme.
In this case, I used the chandeliers, interior objects and architecture of the urban landscape as my subject. Working in a pastiche style, I merged everything together, painting them with thinned oil paint on canvas because that process simulated my impressions.