statement

I view my current portraitures not only as representations of the sitter, but more importantly as snapshots of our contemporary culture. Subjects such as isolation and fear are threads that permeate throughout the works. The realistic elements in the works, for me, speak to our need as humans to investigate and discover. The isolated environments that these figures exist in , as well as the disconnected gaze of the sitters act as visual metaphors of our existence in this hyper connected society, or rather our hyper disconnected society. In this day in age of virtual experiences we long for real connections, but all too often buy into, or settle for the virtual interactions that many times leave us less than satisfied. Now more than ever we as a culture are questioning, just what are real experiences and how might they be changing the way we build identity and view one another? This is where the actual act of drawing itself and process play such an important role in the works. There is a real experience of manipulating actual material on a surface of a real impression that I physically experienced. These works often started by drawing the sitter from life, or at least by me photographing from life. There was a time where working from photographs seemed irrelevant conceptually for me as an artist. Now the fact that I work from photographs is so ideologically key to the works as they exist as a mirror of our culture.Many of our visual experiences are second and third generations of images viewed on a screen. My aim in these works is not to have an axe to grind against new technologies, but to hopefully create work that makes the viewer mindful of just what it is that we may be gaining and giving up as we interact with one another virtually. The slow observant process of traditional realism itself is not the same in view of these contemporary technologies. Some may say traditional processes in art are not relevant in this day in age, but I believe they are not only relevant as a tool for contrast and comparison , but I am also interested how they may be changing intrinsically in the face of contemporary art...or are they? Even the fact that these works will be viewed by most electronically on a screen adds a post-modern irony that I find interesting.

bio

born: 1970, Cincinnati, Ohio

education

University of Cincinnati, MFA, 2003
University of Cincinnati, BFA, 1999

selected awards/honors

The Human Face: A Revelation, Artist Enterprize Center, Covington,Ky 2013, reviewed by AEQUAI. Feb 20, 2013 - HIGH: A Survey of Realism Manifest Gallery, reviewed in AEQUI. received the 2010 Master Teacher Award from the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools
Received Outstanding Educators Award 2014 Cincy Magazine. Recognized: Contemporary Portraiture, The Carnegie, Covington, Ky, reviewed by AEQUAI 2014
Selected for Manifest INDA 8 and 9

selected publications

AEQUAI,2013, reviewed The Human Face: A Revelation, the Artist Enterprise Center, Covington, Ky
AEQUAI, 2014, reviewed Recognized:Contemporary Portraiture, The Carnegie, Covington,Ky
aeqai.com/main/2013/02/high-a-survey-of-realism-manifest-gallery/

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Drawn: Introspection in Contemporary Realism, The University of Cincinnati, Clermont, with Paul Loehle and Joseph Crone