Artist’s Statement

My art practices started very slowly,

kicking off while in the military (photographing nature and landscapes), and coming full circle after retirement, while studying at the San Francisco Art Institute. There the focus of my work turned to street photography, where I became fascinated with studying people. Shortly thereafter, a personal bout with cancer ingrained my focus on individual experiences, and my photography practices started bleeding into painting.

While I still work in both photography and painting, my photography is currently focused on macro views in nature, and my paintings are focused on oil portraits, using both my street photography and portrait photography as catalysts. And while I have a wide variety of subjects to draw from, I prefer selecting images that have underlying currents of social commentary, or individuals that have gone through personal hardships or trauma as subject matter. They remind me that strength and vulnerability can be equal in their beauty (as seen both in people and in the details of nature), and that our similarities as individuals are infinitely more common than our differences... sometimes we just need a little help to see them.