Featured Artist

I strive to encourage awe by exploring natural subjects using saturated color, transparency, and attention to detail. My work includes hyper-realistic oil painting in my Dance of Life series and abstracted natural themes in my Texture series. My more recent works incorporate resin as well, and I have been experimenting with mixed media pieces that weave together elements from all three series. In all my work, I want to encourage viewers to pause and look more deeply. In nature, I’m most drawn to the bright colors and exotic forms found in tropical areas and underwater. I am fascinated by the idea that something in our world can look fantastical, but it really exists. In life I find the seemingly unconnected is often connected in unexpected ways. My work reflects these surprising contradictions: the subjects are still yet full of movement, fantastical yet real, softly balanced yet exuberantly colorful. I see my subjects on the canvas as dancers. Good dancers move around the dance floor with grace and never collide. They are at once connected and individual. Nature also has a contradiction of beauty and danger that attracts me. Some of the most brightly colored plants and animals are poisonous. These plants and animals tell me that sometimes you have to take risks to achieve beauty. Creating itself is risky to me; every new piece is a new, challenging adventure.