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Making a painting is kind of like simultaneously constructing and assembling a puzzle.
You have to create it and solve it at the same time.
Sometimes the painting is also like trying to keep a train on the tracks
barreling down and it can veer off and derail at any moment.
I originally came out to California after I graduated from school.
How I got started making and living with my art
was I happened to be down on the boardwalk at Venice Beach
and I saw other artists down there with their art and they're just on the ground
and I figured if they're down there, they're down there because somebody's buying their stuff
so I just went up there and put it out basically on a blanket on the ground
and that was how I started making money with my art.
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I wanted to set myself away from the crowd a bit
and I wanted to find something that was really unique to me.
I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself to find my style, so to speak, or find my voice.
I let that really develop naturally.
One of the things that's developed in the style of my paintings over the last few years
has been the runs and drips and through an organic chaos.
It's almost a response where something happens in a painting and then mentally I respond to it.
It's like having a conversation with yourself within the painting as you're making it.
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When I approach what colors use in a painting, a lot of it is an intuitive decision.
I just let things happen and I respond and evolve it through the painting.
Often the hardest part of a painting is finishing it or knowing when it's finished
so often when I think it's close to being finished I'll just stop working on it
and let it sit around while I work on other pieces.
Sometimes if you push too much further than your first instinct that it gets heavy handed
or gets too polished and too finished it becomes too overdone.
I guess the short answer is I like my cake to be a little bit raw.
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I get a comment from people on occasion and it happens a lot more frequently.
They'll say something along the lines that your paintings look like a Tarantino film on canvas
or it has the attitude of Johnny Cash.
It's hard to not have the music of not only them but other musicians I like
and filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Tarantino and Sergio Leone and Alfred Hitchcock.
I wouldn't say that I'm overtly trying to emulate them when I make a painting
but I don't necessarily try to keep them out of my mind either.
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The essence of my work is driven by character and personality
and that's really what I'm driving for in the paintings
is creating a sense of story through posturing and body language.
I also merge that with my interest in actual historical references and stories.
You can see a lot of that in some of my work that involves the American West and Outlaw.
I've never seen anybody make paintings that were focused on the characters and personalities
like you might see in a Jesse James movie.
Historically based, it had some sort of relevance and backstory
but it was also entertaining and interesting.
So I try to incorporate that in some of the paintings where when you're seeing them
outside of there being a badge on the shirt, they could be a villain or a hero.
They are often the same people in just different months.
I carry that over into my mobster series of paintings, American gangsters
into sports themes with baseball players and football players from the 20s and 30s.
Even some of the classic Hollywood characters that I've done, the leading men in Hollywood starlets
they have a sense of edge to them, classiness, but they're strong people.
There's a backbone there.
I'm not trying to necessarily make every painting about a tough guy.
I just want tough people and strong personalities.
And another way that I can do that in my paintings is to incorporate body language.
As the artist, I think I needed to develop a sense of empathy and understanding
for the person that I'm making a painting about.
So I have to understand why they think the way they think or how they feel
and kind of step in their shoes a little bit.
People who view it, they recognize it.
They recognize if somebody's sad or angry or what their intentions are
just by being able to see how they're sitting in a chair or how they're holding a glass
or how they're maybe lighting a cigarette or something.
When you perceive that in another person, you read more volume than you do
if I was to try to explain it with words.
I wanted to branch out.
I wanted to find new avenues and venues to meet new people
and share my art with a broader audience.
I started branching out from street festivals to doing legitimate art festivals.
I've been accepted into some of the top art shows in the country.
Before too long I found that I was getting overwhelmed with inquiries
for original paintings and prints and commissions.
So I recruited a sales and management team
and since then I've been able to attract some celebrity collectors
and I'm in some of the top galleries in US and Europe
and things are really happening. It's pretty exciting.
