My drawings begin with my eyes closed and a collection of light scribbles from which I develop forms and faces. I then figure out a suitable place for them to exist, using both my imagination and visual references. Dreams, words and chance all play a role in my drawing process and my characters often reflect my impressions of people, animals and insects I've interacted with and seen during the day. Sometimes I will hear a word or phrase which inspires a visual interpretation. I spend anywhere from fifteen to fifty hours on a drawing but rather than finding the work tedious I am excited by it and enjoy the challenge of discovering how to render a new texture or transfer a complex and colorful object into black and white. The most important thing for me is to understand how something works. By drawing it I will know how it curves and bends and how its weight is distributed and where it casts a shadow. I apply what I've learned from studying reality to imagination. My goal is to seamlessly merge reality with invention and suggest a narrative. The idea for these particular drawings began as a dream of men climbing out of tree roots. It then evolved into the idea of a graveyard where those buried act as seeds and grow into trees.

born: 1979, Norwalk, Connecticut

education

Radford University, MFA 2004
Tufts University & The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, BFA 2001

selected awards/honors

Best Creative Thesis Award, Radford University, 2004

selected group shows

The Studio At Day Hill, gallery representation, Falmouth, MA 2001-2004
4 Eyes, The Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA 2002