My Background
I am a child of artistic, back-to-nature flower children; raised in the wilds of rural Northeastern Washington State. We were essentially pioneers; building a paradise of our own from scratch. I was taught to think critically and question everything. At age two, I had the first of several visitations by a non-terrestrial intelligence which would recur throughout my life and has profoundly influenced my work, spirituality and purpose. Necessity trained me to be both creative and innovative at a very early age. If I wanted it, I had to figure out how to make it with the tools and materials at hand. I embraced painting after high school; studying various artists but finding great inspiration in the background paintings of the original, classic Disney films as well as Ralph McQuarrie’s Star Wars visions. My journey since has been tumultuous and stellar, beautiful and tragic but always creative. Through heartbreak and joy, toil and victory, whether painting, sculpting, designing, building or filming, my quest has remained true. My visitors gave me mysteries to solve. Life provided the playground. My work is and always has been the document. I am the scribe.
My Artistic Concerns:
My vibrant palette combined with my exploration of light and texture flow from a deep desire to understand the sensual, the spiritual and the ancient while being fueled by a powerful legacy of dreams, visions and visitations with benevolent, non-terrestrial intelligence. I was always an artist but the painter was born out of a desire to realize the epic, mystical and spiritual. I was always attracted to the Science Fiction, Fantasy and New Age artists of the 1970s and 1980s. As I began to study style and technique, I looked to my earlier, formative influences in the form of classic Disney films and, especially, the work of the background artists. It was from these studies that I really started to understand form, texture and light. I suspect these influences may have done much to shape my vibrant palette as well.
I am always experimenting with the light illusion and much of my style is built around the concept of sculpting with light. My forays into other mediums contributed a great deal to this understanding. Creating physical shapes and structures allowed me to bring light into the third dimension. It permitted me to look at my imagined forms in a real-world context which only made my two-dimensional work stronger. Playing with reality has always fascinated me and these three-dimensional explorations opened up an entire realm of possibilities; primarily merging the two and three-dimensional realms into a singular vision. Working in production design and art direction had much the same effect and expanded my understanding even further. I have little interest in the concept of mastery as it suggests stagnancy. I am forever learning. Even as I move deeper into my current process, I’m exploring new methods, employing different approaches to brush work, pushing myself to loosen up and let the painting tell me where it wants to go. In the past, I would work diligently on one painting at a time; stubbornly forging ahead until it was complete. Now, I have multiple pieces in play at once; working until they are done or I hit a roadblock and can start a new piece or pull an existing work-in-progress back into play.
This is an exciting evolution for me. My productivity has never been higher. I’ve also shifted from painting “ideas” to painting “feelings and experiences”. While my current work may seem metaphorical in some instances, and I can’t deny that aspect, it is all rooted in my “now”. It is time to express what I have learned, what I have come to understand and believe on this journey. The work to come will share the story of my contact experiences along with the knowledge and insights which came with them. It will also explore the divine within myself and the sacred in the world around me. Even if I never find the final answers, it is time to illuminate the questions which always have and always will drive me.
My Journey:
I have worked consistently as a producing creative since the early 1990s. As I have broad creative skills and can work in a range of mediums, there are gaps in my painting production due to exploring other art forms including but not limited to film, production design and sculpture. Since my focus has returned to my original love, painting, the pieces shared here are intended to reflect that direction.
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