Artist Statement

Surf. Surge. Salt. Rust.

These are some of the elements and processes I try to celebrate in my work. The foundation under all of it is an appreciation for the natural world and the industries that share in its raw power. Every day I turn to surfing as a kind of ritual, a way to center my body and my creative process. To feel the crash of the waves, the grit of the sand, the adrenaline of rising (and falling) beneath the surface—this all culminates in an exchange of energies that I am likewise looking to impart onto my work through tactile abstraction.

I work with materials more akin to materials found in a construction site because I was raised to be a jack-of-all-trades. At an early age, I remember my father working with things typical of a handyman. I want to reconnect to that past, to the trade and materials that are often overlooked. Metal, wood, cement. Igniting gunpowder to create shadow. Running a palette knife against a concrete slab instead of a canvas. Harshness does not negate beauty and utility does not exclude painterly form. Through those very qualities one can extract the texture of the natural world, the elements that scaffold its very existence.