I’m interested in ideas of identity, light, and structure and how they work together to create mood in a painting. 

Many of my portraits begin with a desire to understand and capture elements of a person’s character.  As I work on each piece, however, different narratives emerge- I work with the ideas that each person projects of themselves, the ideas that I have about them, and then set them accordingly.  Reference photos are taken, sketches are made, and this image is then translated through my hand into a finished painting.

In the end I’m left with this idea of a person, a journey undertaken to understand elements of their structure.

As I look at each painting, later, as an outsider might, I almost don’t see the subject of the painting as a person that I know anymore.  They’ve become a character in a play or a story. This process of transformation is fascinating and heartbreaking enough to prompt me to continue.