As a painter I am very interested in color, texture, and pattern. I love to play with the viscous nature of paint, working very thick in an impasto fashion and working with the drips and spills that could easily be passed off as mistakes.
I enjoy saturated color and groupings and patterns, I find that I photograph for fun compositions of brightly colored objects such as fruit from a farmer’s market or tourist kitsch.
Food as content for my work has come up frequently. For painters throughout history food has been a natural subject in the traditional still life. I enjoy exploiting the color and texture of the raw flesh of meat, and the skins of vibrant fruits and vegetables.
My interest in food as subject matter is not just based on the appearance of the objects but also in the nature of food in our culture today. Processed food, consumerism, food as sustenance vs food as comfort and activity, and the effects of diet on health are really interesting to me and topics that I would like to continue to look into in my art making.
Another interest of mine that in some ways connects to my interests and works about the subject of food is my interest in the body. I have always had an interest in biology, mainly the human body and genetics. In recent years based on my personal and family health, I have started to make work based on organic, bio-morphic forms. I enjoy working this way because it is a chance for me to work in a more abstract way but still is in reference to reality. I like to look at forms on a cellular level and create magnified worlds out of those forms that seem like landscapes or maps. The connection of food and biology is intertwined in the way that a lot of the meat that I have painted is reminiscent of the human body or molecular forms, and the effects of food, especially in a world of excess and bio-engineered food on the goings on of the body.
