Synopsis

The central themes of my work are justice, human interaction and the influence of the media. The paintings are very much politically oriented. This is apparent from the repeated use of military technology and other military imagery in the work. When viewing my work, I would like to stress the point that my use of imagery is metaphorical and referential in nature. I intend for the image to have meaning beyond itself, and in relationship to the image that it is in juxtaposition with. I very rarely will paint an image alone.

For example the “sniper and cowboy” paintings are a comparison of warriors, the warrior of the past and the warrior of the present. If one were to think about a sniper and his approach to combat one would deduce that he fights from very far away, that he is concealed in his gullies suit, nearly invisible, and uses advanced technology to locate, sight, and liquidate the package, and also to stay in contact with his team.

The cowboy is very different. He is known for the showdown at high noon in the middle of the street, looking his opponent in the eye and trying to beat him by being faster and more accurate on the draw.

This juxtaposition challenges our idea of the model of combat and warfare. I use the model of war as the most intense level of human interaction. If war is being dehumanized, in the sense that there is only limited human contact during battle then what does this mean for human interaction in the civilian world? One need only think of e-mail, bank cards, or home internet shopping; the list continues.

My feeling is, if human interaction continues to become more and more dehumanized, then in will be far easier for injustice and terrible atrocities to continue. The idea of a person will become abstract and will have no sense of value anymore.

The paint is applied in heavy impasto because I want it to be very obvious that what the viewer is looking at is a painting. Paintings are very slow and that’s why I choose painting as a medium to work in. Paintings are considered and thought about and mulled over in one's head. They can be wonderfully open and terrible concise at the same time, in which case are terrific for starting a dialogue which is what I hope they will do.