Life is short. Here today, gone tomorrow. Change and Death are definite. I remind myself of these realities before I start working everyday. Understanding and accepting these truths about life help me let go of my inhibitions. My work is about life, death, struggle, and the release of awkward emotion
I was born and raised in New York City. A child of the 80s, roaming the streets, influenced by chaos. In 1989 I picked a tag and followed the graffiti lifestyle through for 17 years. This obsessive art form led me to pursue an education in fine art and art history. Studying anatomy during the day and climbing buildings at night, I led a double life. There was no connection, leaving me unsatisfied and searching for a way to reconcile the two. Uninterested in pursuing one genre of art, I started integrating seemingly inconsistent styles creating hybrids and crossbreeding.
I'm currently working on the Time Travelers, creatures that are caught in the past, present and the future surviving in a alternate reality. The chronic time exaggerators are a critique on the progression of art history, They question the idea of history and are a reaction to living in a confusing art period. The travelers are alive and believable their time and place is unexplainable.
The draw-a-thon is an extension of these ideas, a community outreach program and a reaction to art school. I drew the same models in the same poses in the same ways over and over again. The rooms were silent, there was no energy. Collaborating with a group of performers, artists, musicians, and art models, we re-cast the traditional practice of figure drawing by adding context and energy by incorporating narrative, theatrical and musical components. The goal is to create a public space where artists form a community while drawing alternative skits in a affordable alternative to the conventional fashion.
