About the Artist

Artist Bio

When I was around four or five years old, my father handed me a piece of paper, a pencil, a ruler, and a pair of scissors. He knew that with that one interaction, something stirred within me, as I disappeared into my own universe, drawing dinosaurs, monsters, and copying drawings of Godzilla from wherever I could get my hands on.

Armed with my Faber-Castell pencil (my magic wand), I conjured epic imaginings out of nothing. Later, as a teenager, I followed my interest in the visual arts with classes in life drawing, photography, and theatrical makeup at a local community college. After graduating from high school, I fully committed myself to the art world and spent my time building a portfolio that ultimately earned me admission to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Attending the Art Center inspired and encouraged me in my artistic endeavours, as I was surrounded by like-minded artists and designers.

I was drawn to realism early on at Art Center. I was fascinated by the technical skill of artists such as Vermeer and Caravaggio, but later in life I realized I didn’t want to pursue academic-style realism. I wanted to express something that wasn’t visible and had a more primitive, raw quality.

Later in life, I attended many life-drawing classes at various studios in the greater Boston area. Something was sparking within me. During the pandemic, I signed up for as many online drawing classes as I could. I rediscovered my love for the human form and my strong affinity for gesture poses, which, for me, represent the purest visual expression of life.

Then Egon Schiele entered my life. Schiele opened my eyes to the divergent possibilities of line and form. I was first struck by the raw simplicity and almost naiveté of his charcoal use. The immediacy of his work demonstrated how to define and dissolve an entire form with urgency, almost childlike in his approach. Together with Gustav Klimt and the other European Expressionists of 1910, they became the architects of my new direction in art.

Currently, I’m exploring pen and ink, working on a portfolio of black-and-white illustrations, and experimenting with line in figure drawing. I’m currently working on an illustrated book.