Yellow Cigarette Painting

What interests me is the chaotic mixture and circus-like quality of multimedia images influencing our visual lives. We are assaulted daily with opposing images that can create a surreal tension within us. This separation from our physical reality versus a virtual world manifests as a detached reality in our lives. How do we process this visual information? Humor plays a definite role in my art, making light of the seriousness with which we take ourselves. I randomly choose imagery for each painting from many places in media, magazines, TV, movies, and books. My response to each image is personal. I choose what strikes me as most interesting on that day. The resulting painting can become a story, creating visual conversations. My process involves drawing, using the computer program, photoshop, and then having large digital prints made as working sketches. From these prints I redraw onto primed wood or canvas and then paint on a larger scale in oils. Consequently, because of this process, a synthesis occurs from frequent changes. The final paintings have a new and different spirit from the original computer rendering. Folk art, the black line and color fill of comic books, media icons all contribute to my vision. I thrive on the act of painting and the surprise that comes from making visual poetry.