Other painters describe me as a ‘gritty realist,’ ‘expressive realist’ and ‘painterly realist.’ I believe all the descriptions are apt because my influences and concerns cover both extremes of the figurative tradition. I seek particularity, description and nuance of form, but I also love bold, vigorous paint handling and execution. My paintings’ surfaces are scarred, rubbed, scratched, built, destroyed and rebuilt. I desire my rough and raw treatment of paint and form to echo the visceral reactions and mental states of the people depicted in my paintings, with the end result being a fusion between the visual and pyschological elements.
