My work is a collection of large-scale playful illustrations painted in a realistic style. I feel like I should say something profound or serious here, but the pieces do not have a collective message or agenda. I didn't paint them to be profound and serious. I made these paintings because they bring me good feelings, and I hope to bring good feelings to others through them. To prepare for these paintings, I let my mind wander and let images come to me. When these images make me laugh out loud or make me think “I’ve never seen anything like that before” then there is a good chance they will strike others in a "I don't know why this exists, but I'm glad that it does" kind of way. I like when art catches me off guard like that - Like a dance choreographed by Paul Taylor, or a Monty Python skit... others seem to enjoy it too - watching viewers do a double take and laugh out loud is one of my favorite things about painting this way.I began painting with this balance of realism and illustration because I couldn't decide between the two. The things I love about illustration are the styles and colors and the smart compositional tricks illustrators use to guide the eye and convey a mood or story without words. I like trying them out in my paintings. But details also call to me. I use photographs or objects as visual references, and they help me capture perspective, lighting, and form, while trying to maintain the life and spark of the original imagined idea. It is a challenging balance between observing and imagining. This spectrum between realism and illustration leads to variability and experimentation in my work. It adds another dimension of play that you'll likely see more of from me in the future. More than anything, I simply offer good intentions to the world through my work. As a painter, I take the tactile visual experiences that excite me (often textures, color combinations, animal figures...) and I use them to dream up enticing ideas that I've never seen before. I have not had much formal training in painting, but art has always been a passion for me. I graduated with a major in Philosophy and a major in Fine Art with an emphasis in sculpture and ceramics from Coe College in 2005. I learned a bit of color theory with Peter Thompson, drawing with Priscilla Steele, and took many sculpture and ceramic classes with John Beckleman who taught me a great deal about the elements and principles of design for 3-d artwork, we also spent a lot of time talking open-mindedly about art and philosophy. I spent a semester in New York apprenticing Sculptors Romelo Del Dio and Lee Tribe. While there, I went to many museums and performances, modeled at Columbia College, and frequently drew at the Art Student's League and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As part of my senior art show, I wrote an introspective senior thesis called “Truth and Artifact,” that details my time in college and my journey to understand art and philosophy at the time. I also wrote an independent philosophy paper called "Finding Common Ground" and presented it at the Coe College Philosophy Colloquium. I earned the Freshman Prize for Philosophy and shared the Marvin Cone Prize for outstanding senior body of work for my sculpture and drawings. More recently, I received helpful guidance from friend and master portrait painter Duffy Sheridan. I periodically take portrait classes from the Scottsdale Artist School from artists such as David Kassan and Louis Carr and I listen to a lot of the Undraped Artist, a podcast in which the artist Jeff Hein interviews notable artists. My original artwork is collected by people with a sense of humor and appreciation for fine details all across the United States and prints and books have been sent to collectors throughout the world. In 2018, I designed a 200 x 5 foot steel and stained glass fence that surrounds the Art Museum in Casa Grande, Arizona. The building is on the national register of historic places. The fence was featured on the Casa Grande episode of Arizona Highways TV in 2020. You can view a documentary about the fence and a tribute to the volunteers who built the fence here: Art Museum Restoration Short - YouTube In 2022, I published a book of my paintings entitled "There Will Be Nonsense" The book contains over 30 full color paintings. Each painting is paired with a fun answerless question. It doubles as a conversation starting coffee table book or a special children's picture book. The book won the 2023 Best Independent Book Award (BIBA) for Illustration. BIBA is an international competition for independently published books. Get a copy of the book here: Books – Artifact Fine Art (artifactfa.com)