My work is an expression of life and all that influences it. I use the elements of color, design and composition to create feeling and emotion. My paintings show how life has given me experience and wisdom in different doses. I have created many series of pieces that are meant to share my visions and help you relate to your own life experiences.

Even though elements of color theory dictate my design and composition, my work is somewhat abstract, spontaneous and has the characteristics of the techniques of automatism or automatic art. I begin with a well thought out and researched concept, but it is within the spontaneous brushwork that I find the insight or vision of the piece. This form of abstraction has given my work more of a unique metaphysical sense rather than a representational one.

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As an artist, I have always been very versatile. Maybe it is the result of growing up in a nomadic environment, moving with my family yearly all across the U.S. I feel that having so many different experiences as a child either makes you strong or makes you insane. Fortunately, it has given me much to paint about.

My mixed media art is both abstract and representational. An experiment with an organic material like the molding paste has given me a different perspective on portraiture. I have done traditional oil and acrylic portraits in the past of people and their pets. I wanted to try to go a step beyond and concentrate on presenting their expressions more abstractly. The result has been an explosion of color and texture. I hope the viewer can relate to the subject’s emotions.

During senior year while finishing my Fine Art degree, I completed a series of paintings based on Birth, Life and Death entitled, "My Mortality". It is a subject that is on my mind, as I am sure most people as well, all the time. I have used the hourglass as a timepiece to express how little control we have over time passing. It contains pieces that show different periods of life and its struggles as we gain wisdom from these experiences.

More recently, I developed a second series from that entitled, "Life Visions". It explores the same subject matter, but with an enlightened spiritual approach. The style becomes more abstract, the automatism plays a major role and takes on a more vivid color palette.

I am an Honors Graduate of Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting. I worked for 9 years as a Graphic Designer at an ad agency in Nashville, Tennessee. I am a member of The Frist Center for the Visual Arts and The Tennessee Art League. I started my own business while in high school (1986). I created designs and hand painted clothing I called "Wearables". I also painted portraits of people and their pets. I later turned it into a freelance graphic design and fine art business. I have won many awards for my drawing, painting and most recently photography throughout my career. I have been interested in art since age 3.

For more information about these works or other commissions, please contact me by clicking the "Contact the Artist" tab and send me an e-mail.

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Artist Comments

“As an artist something sparks an idea, so you grab all of your tools and begin work. You sketch it out, take photos, go to the places or look for the people to get your concept or idea down. You research in books, magazines, internet to see all aspects of your idea. Then it may all go in a totally different direction once the paint is actually going on to the canvas. This is magic! It seems to always go the way it needs to. You just can’t plan that. God takes over.

“It feels automatic in the sense that you are not really in control of the paint. You no longer dictate what happens. It is totally natural and flows out of you without being conscious of where the next brushstroke will take you. From this you step back and see what is apparent within the work. Suddenly the subject or theme appears from the overlapping brushwork. Awesome!”