Untitled #16 Print

I'd say my style is nonrepresentational, emotive, with an urban tone to it. There's a sense of revelation...layers (which could represent anything, really) alternately concealed or revealed, a snapshot of an unfolding universe. Simultaneous composing and decomposing. Details about the materials I use: I paint on canvas, wood and masonite. I use oil paint, polyurethane, both oil- and water-based enamels, wood stains, and dry mineral pigments with various media. Why I create this type of art: It's purely compulsive. It just happens. Unlike many areas of my life, I don't intellectualize it unless I'm forced to (like now). I have to be unattached to the outcome in order to make anything at all. This busy brain of mine can foul up any creative pursuit with ruthless criticism and over-analysis. I follow the feeling of flow and unity. I've tried in vain to attach a conceptual identity to my work to make it more palatable to the art world. In truth the concept is me, you can know me by looking at my paintings. It's a commentary only insomuch as it expresses my situation within a structure(s), never cool observation from a impenetrable castle of cultural critique. Where I find inspiration: I can find inspiration anywhere...an idea, a conversation, the city. Probably most often I draw inspiration from my internal processes and the materials themselves. It's as if they have a nature or a destiny that they want to express and the best I can do is get out of the way. Which other artists or movements influence my work: I was influenced early on by Gerhardt Richter, those small scrapy ones that are nonrepresentational. Obviously Abstract Expressionism in all it's manifestations have been the most influential. I hugely admire the Bay Area Figurative artists, Bischoff, Park and Diebenkorn. What they were able to accomplish with a few brushstrokes in terms of the figure and the mood of a scene is astounding to me. I've attempted to incorporate abstracted figuration in to my work but found my skill and my will to do so lacking. It turns out, my work is too esoteric for that. What my intentions are for the work: One intention is to keep doing it. Painting is part (one of many) of my personal development...