A R T I S T S T A T E M E N T I am a still life specialist, a glazer; it’s all about layering translucent paint. Though efficient at it, my procedures are relatively slow, without instant gratification. Yet I have learned by experience that I produce better results if I proceed in stages - allowing whatever time it takes - until I can no longer improve the work; that is a demanding process. I am committed to the idea of giving all that I have to give, satisfying an inner need, and so I hope my viewers receive an equal satisfaction - as if they have feasted on something dense and rich. Glazing in general, including my version of it, is not for the faint of heart. It is demanding, and in some ways, exhausting. So I do it only for the end result: not the journey, the destination. Of course, I learn a lot about myself along the way. The result of this is my series of oil paintings called The Kingdom. It is my imaginary world revealed in paint. B I O G R A P H Y "Born 1965, I grew up in Northeast Louisiana, graduating from Louisiana Tech in 1988, and then spending twenty years in North Carolina after attending postgraduate studies at East Carolina University. I began concentrating on still lifes in 2006, developing my Kingdom concept around 2011 which receives ever-increasing attention. I grew up in Bastrop, Louisiana, where my father was an electrical engineer in the paper industry. My brother is an electrical engineer. My cousin, uncle, and grandfather were electricians. I too tinker with electricity when circumstances require it and have come to expect only a slight shock or two. Anyway, from the start I just had to make things. I would draw, write, shape modeling clay, and construct scenes with cut paper, but almost anything would do in a pinch. I was also influenced by comic books. Simply put, I have always been most satisfied when making things of my own choosing and remain driven to do so. For reasons I cannot fully explain, I have always been sustained by a sort of inherent confidence in this area. Conversely, during the very few occasions where this self-assurance seemed diminished, my experience has been frighteningly unfamiliar. If dark moments are the enemy, art is my vigilant sentinel. Likewise, if there is a "key" to my life, my happiness, it is staying in touch with eight-year-old Dan. Loved ones aside, artwork is the only thing that has provided me with sheer joy - goosebumps, in fact - and continues to allow me to visit those grandest of ever-elusive notions: meaning and purpose. Art explains me, I think, and I obsess over it, which strikes me as perfectly sensible." P A S T E X H I B I T I O N SSociety of IllustratorsArt of the HeartlandOil Painters of AmericaArt Renewal CenterInternational Guild of Realism International Guild of Realism's Masterworks Museum Tour P E R M A N E N T C O L L E C T I O N R.W. Norton Museum, Shreveport, LA