Searching for a way to pare down representational painting to the essence of reality, I first turned to string theory. I simplified my paintings into space, bits of matter, and then string as the literal and symbolic connector between all things. Space is the great truth of our physical universe because matter itself contains vast amounts of space-even our bodies are a sea of space with tiny swirling atoms that comprise the changing territory of our corporeal selves.

Although I always strive for realism, I am not a photo realist. All my work is drawn free hand. Superimposing multiple layers of color to achieve shape and depth is a time consuming process, limiting me to about three paintings a year. While eating breakfast at the popular pancake house in Selma, I gazed at the faded blue sign hanging outside the window and began to explore the possibility of painting a series of old neon signs.

I consider art making to be problem solving. Typically, I identify an idea or issue and then figure out the best way to address the topic. The memories and materials I employ are excavated from my life and surroundings including everything from a family member’s dentures to a walk through an amusement park. My aim as an artist is to reframe, recontextualize, and respond to human experiences and inconspicuous moments in an honest fashion. My projects are conceptually driven and I utilize the media that is most appropriate for conveying my concepts.

The canvas is a place of discovery for me. I juxtapose various elements such as the figurative with the abstract, the spontaneous with the formal, and the past with the present to create a balance that is both spiritual and visual. Recurring elements of orbs, squares, bellflowers imply landscape as well as abstraction, and the symbolism of the moon lends mystery. The moon is associated with unseen forces. It controls the tides, it is hidden and both magic and madness are thought to result from it.

There are no ordinary moments. I make paintings that will someday create a history and collective memory of my life. I appropriate the photographs taken by my wife, family, friends and myself in order to create a visual journal of time spent. Without specific allegiance to any genre, I paint all my subjects with a portrait-like significance.

Referencing the concept: "the inanimate truth of factual objects spatially emptied by a personified line," I was concerned with the subjects' ability to serve as personifications of myself while also sustaining their own identities as common, recognizable objects. The use of raw materials such as burlap and gesso help to provoke a direct introduction between "myself" and the viewer.

This series of figurative paintings is intended to remain ambiguous, perhaps even enigmatic. The bodies are removed from any logical contexts; they exist in indeterminate and sometimes impossible states, their true identity is often concealed. I am interested in large themes such as birth, death, and regeneration, as well as spirituality, sensuality, and violence. The underlying themes of identity and gender are also inescapable.

The breaking up of and the struggle to occupy or obtain space; these are the elements I focus on in my work. My process begins with a finished painting. Using the composition of this finished painting, I begin to paint over areas, sand down spaces, and leave parts untouched. Out of this constant flux of creating new and destroying old, forms begin to take shape, struggling for their position in the painting and imposing themselves upon the debris.

A recent conceptual interest of mine is the painted portrait, in particular the depiction of the artist in his or her studio. These are all colleagues and friends who have invited me into their spaces and allowed me to document them with their works in progress. Along with the artists’ likenesses, I hope to capture a sense of their immersion in their art as well as the solitary nature of their endeavor. I use the ‘archaic’ process of egg tempera, a medium that imposes a certain stillness to the treatment of a subject through its slow, methodic, and cumulative means of creating an image.