Pondering the Dream Painting

I consider myself a contemporary, narrative artist. As American filmmaker, George Lucas said, “Narrative is one of the oldest and most important impulses in art. It is also the most popular form of art. Tracing the arc of narrative art reveals how culture is created, reinforced, and then compelled to evolve.” It is not that I simply want to document a story arc, but to celebrate the power of visual storytelling through expressionist painting. I see with my heart and I paint with my hands, but I always desire to provoke fascination, imagination and wonder. To that end, my loose, expressive style allows me to interpret the emotion and movement of the moment. What’s my objective? To create art that engages the human heart and challenges the spirit… to hone my craft in such a way as to resonate on an emotional, visceral level. My paintings and collages are marked by bold colors, expressive brushwork often mixing media and incorporating collage elements and a variety of mark-making tools. My subjects are informed by the aggregate of my varied life experiences. You will note that much of my work is sports themed. That is not because I am a jock or have an interest in star power. Frankly, there is a lot in the sports world that is repulsive to me (the scandals, the privilege, gender inequality, and the ridiculous salaries to name a few). But there is also a transcendent dimension of sports, an innate drama and what Olympian Jesse Owens called, the athlete’s “inner life”– the mysterious source of the drive, deeper than the one to win, to excel until improbable dreams are fulfilled. I have found sports to be a good staging ground to paint colorful narratives through a compelling point of view. I have a passion to never stop learning and to never ever stop growing. From Russia to India to Africa I have created art and garnered more than 100 local, national and international awards.