Cubano Sunrise Painting

I was born in Toronto, Canada, and upon graduating in 1974 from the Ontario College of Art, where I studied fashion drawing, I then relocated to New York City in 1978. And during the height of the Disco Era, I immersed myself into the euphoria New York City nightlife and music. The fashion bug already inside me was about to unleash the beginning of a series of fashion art illustrations that would continue through 1992. Also during this period, I took my paintings to a whole new level. Large scale paintings with a retro flair, combining music, fashion and theatrical elements which also worked with my restaurant and hotel lobby mural assignments. I have spent a lifetime paying homage to the world of Burlesque, MGM Hollywood movie musicals, haute couture fashion, Latin and Brazilian music, Vintage cafe society, The Big Band Era, Art Deco design and architecture, all of which have been catalysts that have inspired the recurring theme of the"Showgirl" in my works on paper and canvas. It's a subject that I continue to reinvent and explore. I refer to my painting style, (a combination of rich saturated color, geometric design elements, sharp hard-edge lines, and highly stylized figurative forms) as Latin Deco. In front of the canvas I'm a choreographer creating works of art that move to a sexy Latin beat. My collage work are statements about mortality, sexual identity, social anxiety, hang-ups, sexual paranoia and taboos. I carefully stitch together a story using references from vintage fashion magazines, entertainment and advertising. In 2013, I began a new contemporary series of paintings and a new way of expressing what I want to say about my work. In choosing an image of a woman walking under an umbrella, I challenged myself to a study in repetition and camouflage. In the "Parasol Series" I duplicated an identical image 13 separate ways, experimenting with geometric hard-edge patterns, and organic methods of painting. The viewer is treated to a potpourri of structured graphic images that are thought provoking and mysterious. For inquiries my email is My mobile is 305.673.4329