Leopard Skin I Artwork

The work of any artist is ultimately this— to give observation and imagination a body. It is to look at the world closely and slowly and, through the service of a particular medium, to create a kind of portal that spans the gap between matter and spirit, crosses every demographic divide, and dares both individuals and societies into transformation. My artistic practice is a unitive exercise in which historic preservation meets modern art. I am a mixed media artist interested in themes of transcendence and rebirth, and the pieces I create are visual enactments of the beauty of evolution in which the past is both honored and included but also transcended. Often appearing in my work are Italian giltwood fragments sourced primarily in Florence and the region of Tuscany. These 17th and 18th century artifacts, which are finite in number and difficult to source, have been separated from their original places of belonging (usually churches). With sculpted canvas, gesso, plaster, and paint I create new settings for these artifacts which are worthy of them. I teach them to begin again. Sometimes I even adorn their scars with minerals and gems, transforming these relics of the past into works of luxe modern art which have a voice and a message: Renaissance for All.