Born February 3, 1972 Paterson, NJ; raised in northern New Jersey

Attended weekend drawing classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology NY, NY

Attended general classes at the University of South Carolina Conway, SC

Completed degree program at Arizona State University Tempe, AZ B.F.A. in Painting

Since graduation, I have lived and worked all over the valley, while being represented by Art One Gallery. I have been a resident artist at both the House Studio and Holga’s Artist Lofts in downtown Phoenix, as well as, East Side Art in Apache Junction.

I have participated in benefits hosted by the Red Cross and the Phoenix Art Museum in conjunction with Contemporary Forum, Artlink, and various local galleries to raise money for art sponsorship and humanitarian causes such as AIDS and 9/11.

My paintings have been exhibited in the Undergraduate and Graduate galleries at ASU and included in a collector’s showcase at the ASU Art Museum. I have participated in exhibitions at Modified Art Space, Holga's Art Gallery and 3 car Pileup; Thursday Art Walk, Artlink’s First Fridays and have been featured in private collections on the Scottsdale Home Tour and in corporate settings locally and nationally.

I have been awarded a Board of Regent’s Scholarship, a Student Travel Grant, and Honors Studio Award while attending college, and have since received an Artist’s Materials Grant through Contemporary Forum and an Artist Grant/Work Study to attend Vermont Studio Centers in Johnson, VT.

For the past two years I have been traveling throughout the world, living in both England and Singapore for three-month periods. I am currently painting in a farm building, formerly used to house grain as my studio, and continuing my large-scale work in Hoven, SD.

Artist Statement

My paintings are about the observations found within the natural world; the flora and fauna, the layers of strata in the earth and the atmosphere; the depths of the ocean and all the things that lie beneath. I find my imagery of organic shape and color within the natural world; the beauty of its observation, and the flux and change that exists within it.

I place a lot of emphasis on process and experimentation in my studio environment. I manipulate process in order to arrive at an artistic harmony in the world of Painting . Patterns actively form on the picture plane, mimicking Nature’s ability to stabilize its forces in a purely random fashion. These paintings are meant to be meditative; an environment that offers the viewer an opportunity to observe and visually explore a specific space created on the picture plane for the purpose of reflection and repose.

I have worked with a range of media, continuously experimenting with the plasticity of paint as a medium. I currently work with a water-based poly-urethane that is tinted with an acrylic pigment. I apply various layers of these tints to achieve a specific saturation of color and light within the painting. I sand in between each layer to push color into the piece, which at the same time, polishes the physical surface of the painting, creating a pristine, glass-like surface, not unlike that of a precious stone. The layers represent a history; a layering of time and space upon the picture plane. The paintings are molecular and cellular; the primordial matter that the universe is constructed from. The ritual of the painting process and experimentation in the studio then becomes a metaphor for the processes that reside within and upon the earth as it cycles, continuously in flux, on the verge of change. Nature has a pattern and rhythm, discernible to her alone. Beauty can be found within the chaos of the Natural world. I seek that beauty and balance of chaos in each painting I create.

Since I have lived in Arizona, I have become increasingly interested in the particulars of light and reflection; the color saturation found in the Arizona sky and the intensity of the natural elements of the desert.

Education
1998
Bachelor of Fine Arts - Cum Laude
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona