Peace Offering Print

"I receive much inspiration from the harmonious order of classical painting styles as well as from popular magazines, newspapers and the Internet. Seen from a broad spectrum, my art seeks to understand how we are evolving as human beings in a consumer-driven world." I received my artistic training at Concordia University (B.F.A. 1985) and the Victoria College of Art (2003). In the early 1980's my line of work wavered between the Sciences (B.Sc. 1983) and the Arts. This set me up for a lifetime confrontation between the two, which is reconciled in some way with compositional geometry inspired by the likes of Canadian artist Alex Colville and Renaissance artists. The latter saw no difference between science and art, thus trying to resolve (in vain) universal truths through their art. As a postmodern artist, much of my art references the past and compares it with the present in a satirical kind of way. Postmodern art, in principle, deals with skepticism of "big theories" (including modernism) thus involving a healthy critique of all things past and present. Consequently, it borrows ideas and images from mass media to try to make sense of where humankind is heading (utopia or annihilation?). Despite this, postmodernism also employs humour and shock value to drive its message home, likewise employing "multiple-coding" of messages and complex meanings (e.g. the cow as a symbol of beauty, sacredness, innocence, genetic engineering, consumerism, slaughter, bar code referencing the holocaust, etc.). Art-making is a vehicle I use to understand the world I live in.