I have been painting and drawing since I was very young. I studied art at the St. Philips College in San Antonio and the University of Texas and have shown my work across Texas and in California. Currently my painting studio is in the old Continental Gin Building in a historic Dallas neighborhood called Deep Ellum where blues musicians like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, and T. B. Walker once played.

My art work is primarily a social comment about art itself, about classicism and classism, with a bent toward deconstructing femininity. As an artist, I strive to see my world clearly, and have a gritty attraction for the juxtaposition of beauty and repulsion that exists in the potency of truth. I am very interested in the ways that that the female gender has been objectified, “beautified” and made into still life within the context of art history. I am also stimulated by the assessment of artistic value and worth held in our world culture, and in the role uneven power relationships have played in that process.

I style my work in a classically reverent manner in order to be irreverent. I am an avid studio photographer, and I usually paint from photographs using friends as models. These are real people (usually females) I consider to be very noble. There are often nude subjects in my work, and humorous hints of famous art pieces. My images are often narrative in nature, but I try to leave some of the dialogue open to interpretation.

My process often starts with an epic premise. Next I will sketch a staged scene that I feel best illustrates my concept, photograph the scene with dramatic lighting, and then paint from the photograph. Although the complete comment I am compelled to express exists wholly within the photograph itself, for me there is irony in infusing this concept with traditional value through the process of painting. I prefer to render my images in the “old world” manner using gossamer-thin glazes of oil. To negate the notion that the actual painting is the art, sometimes I will paint strong words over the finished images. Also, I will often paint an ornate Baroque-style frame around my finished work to further stress my conviction that art, beauty, gender, and value are constructs.