ARTIST'S STATEMENT

When asked to explain the motivation behind my synthesis of primitive and contemporary style, large scale presentation, and passion for color, I believe that art should be exciting, both in conception and perception. The excitement for me is in the expression of the unspoken, the pure energy and mystery that runs beneath the surface of the natural world.

Whenever I look at the work of my Native American ancestors, I feel that they understood this concept and lived by it. Some call it 'collective consciousness.’ I only know that the first time I came upon a pictograph, it was more like a rediscovery than a discovery... a recognition of something that had always been a part of me.

Throughout my life, I have spent a lot of time hiking and cycling in the mountains, forests and deserts, as well as photographing sacred sites and wilderness. This physical dialogue with earth and sky infuses my work in much the same way it informed the art of my Chumash forebears. It is all there in rock art -- the strange and the ordinary, the mystical, and the familiar. Nature is never static, and neither are my images. We are both a part of nature and moving through it at the same time.

Perhaps that is why I always paint to music... anything with high energy rhythms. I have always been involved in music, even before I started painting. In fact, I am a third generation drummer. The process and interaction are similar when I paint; my brush responds to the rhythms and moods with vibrant colors and primordial shapes. I try to convey the feeling that we are connected to something beyond the present, something ageless, timeless and infinitely powerful. When critics and viewers tell me they feel a sense of energy and intensity from my work, I know I have succeeded.