About my work:
People in motion are my subject, even if I’m painting a still life. I love studying athletes and other kinds of dancers (everyone is a dancer), muscles twisting around bones. But I also think a lot about who’s viewing my work. Composing a painting, for me, always involves considering a viewer who will hopefully dance a little because I’ve painted them into a dance: stepping close to see the brushwork, back again to enjoy the illusion, then to the side to see what’s hidden in a fold of plywood or the glint of real gold shining against the wall, maybe throw in a twist or fun head angle?
I believe in celebrating our bodies and in studying from every possible angle how art works on our selves. To that end, I spent six years collaborating with psychologists and neuroscientists on exhibits that blend art and science, resulting in original research that we presented at the American Psychological Association conference last year, among others, adding new scientific insights about how art conveys meaning and why art matters.
My paintings come from a wish to hold and examine the moments in life I find forceful and fascinating: the beautiful, the strange, the majestic, and the delightful. In the studio, I try to push my own technique ever outward—preparing unusual 2- and 3-D surfaces and practicing various methods to apply paint—in the hope that the objects I make communicate something that will fascinate viewers.
My route to painting like this has been full of unexpected turns and continuing education. In early adulthood, I danced ballet whenever I had free time. For a while, after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, that meant giving myself a daily barre at sea on an aircraft carrier. With a dissertation on combat art and the Iraq war, I received a Ph.D. in theory and cultural studies from Purdue University in 2011. More recently I’ve studied plein-air painting in Virginia, drypoint etching with masters in Italy, and wood carving with sculptors in my current home city of Portland, Oregon. I’ve had the honor of showing my work at the Smithsonian Institution, the Oregon Military Museum, and commercial and academic galleries throughout the U.S., including my most recent shows in October and November, 2023, at Gay Street Gallery in Washington, VA, then April and May 2024 at Laura Vincent Design & Gallery in my home city of Portland and Figure Ground Gallery, in Seattle.
