"Brother Ray" Painting

I have spent the last three decades documenting sub-cultures as diverse as snake handlers in West Virginia to Furries at their conventions. My interest is in the cultural anthropology of the groups to whom I am attracted. The themes I have explored for the past three decades have all required extensive research and field work. The 5 major themes that I have examined include: Snake-handling churches throughout Appalachia. Small town stock car races—“Enduros”. A series of paintings examining the harsh, unforgiving landscape and rough denizens of Southeast Alaska. New York City in the 80's when it was in decay. And my most recent subject, "Furries". I am not an art world insider, like the sub-cultures I explore, I have remained on the margins. In all my explorations, I have been drawn to subjects to which I have had no prior contact. The study becomes the educational experience which I chronicle in my paintings and video. The people in my work tend to be outsiders, working-class and marginalized, often with great hesitation to open themselves to outsiders. The focus is not just on the dramatic visual content, but also on these various hidden, often doomed, subcultures. The themes have a common thread that runs through them which is the element of danger as a form of recreation, occupation or spiritual belief.