My work is about rapture - the surrender to desire, the ephemeral search for beauty, and the profound hunger for love. I paint sensual images of exaggerated form that speak to the moment between the consciousness of intellect and the unconscious longing of the loins.
These exaggerated forms become the armature for a lyrical narrative of a series, usually based on classical archetypical themes. I use literature, opera and rock and roll as inspiration, as the high drama and heroic/erotic movement renders the human form in a state of kinetic play. The compositions revolve around an irresistible vortex - the movement of the sea, the suffering of Jesus Christ, and the ultimate vortex of the female form. To reference "Porgy and Bess," the murky Charleston hurricane creates its own whirlpool, while Bess's fecund hips sway, her jewel box ripe with ocean pearls.
Influenced by poetry and the essence of the singular image, I have my lexicon of symbols that repeat and connect through each series - a crown of thorns, Clytemnestra's coiled hair, ripe tropical fruit, sails of a ship, waves of a hurricane, and weapons of color.
I sketch the composition onto the canvas with colored chalk. Once I have an infrastructure of movement lines, I begin the process of painting and the compositional sketch allows for a balance of deep saturation, washes and texture. Fusing color, light and form, I am an unrepentant fauve. My "wild beasts" erupt in the storm of "The Tempest," explode in the House of Atreus, and find voice with Musetta in "Quando Me'n Vo."
If the oil pieces tell a story, the water pieces whisper a sentiment. The works in watercolor and gouache are spontaneous tone poems expressed with translucene and simplicity. The elusive window of the paint demands confidence in the stroke of the brush and trust in the water.
I have recently completed a large format exploration of the Four Seasons, with a continued focus on marrying the technique of water and oil, and the perpetual exploration of sexual surrender. I am currently working on a Landscape/Seascape series after spending time in NorthEastern Canada.
