Interview

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I’ve spent of my professional career as an art director and creative director in the advertising industry. However, I have been an artist my entire life. This is my first time officially entering the ‘art world.’ The sculpted paintings I create are an obsession and culmination of years working privately in studio to develop an expressive art form that transcends past topical, illustrative and figurative works.”

What inspires you?

“I am inspired by the Art and Architecture movement of the 60’s, Brutalsim Architecture, Jackson Pollock’s rhythmic and random controlled chaos, Mark Rothko’s color as expressed human emotion, Frank Auerbach’s thick sculptural paint use, Monet’s exquisite color and light, Great Lake Michigan’s Waves and the Rolling Hills of Wisconsin Kettle Moraine region.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“I have decided to resist the gravitational pull of politics, figurative depictions and even my own love of surrealism, all to pursue what I see as exploration of light, shadow and color in the physical realm. The shape and contours of my re-imagined, sculpted fiberglass resin canvas can be felt visually and physically. There is a desperate attempt for the contours to line up and make sense together, order within chaos. Color transitions negotiate relationships between random peaks and valleys, in a series of vertical waves. I invite people to let go of conventional relationships to art on a wall in a space, experience my work as a metaphysical therapy, an intellectual massage rather than a riddle. If art is medicine for the soul, mine is homeopathic.”

How would you describe your work?

“Imagine your a bird flying over a vast body of water, waves of peaks and valleys beneath you in a tidal tug of war. capture a three dimensional map of the waters surface and cut it into vertical strips reorganized not to fit side by side. Bring order to mismatched vertical wave lengths with color that peacefully negotiates harmony in a symphony of chaos, make it light enough to display on a wall. My work is not to be adored, it seduces architectural spaces.

Which artists influence you most?

“I have definitely been impacted by Jackson Pollack’s controlled chaos, Mark Rothko’s color as expressed human emotion, Frank Auerbach’s thick sculptural paint use and Monet’s exquisite color and light. I would be a fool not to admit my contemporary brothers and sisters are my ultimate inspiration! We live in the most unbound time in the history of human kind as is relates to art. I am humbled daily.”

What is your creative process like?

“Stage one, I begin sculpting and shaping what will become my next three dimensional canvas, feeling each contour and wave, imagining the sound in water or music as I shape it. The second step is a very specific series of preparatory coatings all painted on, the wall hanging structure is added during this process, I start to hear and feel a melody, rhythm or visual vibration. The fiberglass resin coating is the durable surface which is then primed for color painting. I am closest to my work and spiritually engaged during the sculpting and color exploration part of the compositions. The color is loosely planned but allowed to drift and flow as fast or slow as it needs to fit the waves. I listen to what can only be described as cognitive drift music while I work.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“Artists are just another form of communicator. Most people utilize systems society has developed over thousands of years to communicate, artists develop their own unique forms of communication. Visual, symbolic, musical and performances can all be used to communicate something even if its nothing. Most artists want you to feel some kind a way about one thing or another. Art can be a transport for the mind, each artistic communication designed to take you to a topic or place or emotion. AI is only the tip of the innovation spear. many artists will not wrestle with mediums, they may just focus on an idea that can be executed with authentic wild abandon, no limitations. Maybe Neuralink will simply tap directly into emotional centers in the brain, perhaps the art won’t be on canvas, maybe it will be a port we plug into and buy a copy of or own it exclusively?”