Laguna College of Art + Design

I think of my paintings as an extension of street photography. The photograph has had

a long-standing tradition of being at war with the painting world; however, I found that it is

used in my work beyond the traditional means of reference, and is solely responsible for the

imagery of transient people in the urban landscape on which my paintings are based. The

process manifests in two parts: first, the execution of photography, and second, the painting,

where I look for patterns, repetition, and order among people in groups, isolated figures, and

compositions that may have a narrative. The results are at times unexpected, uncanny,

mysterious, strange, and even fearful. Many of the works are inspired by the photography of

Garry Winogrand, Walker Evans, and David Bradford.

The photograph is also used to deeply explore the psychological and sociological

issues of people in urban spaces, borrowing from the research of Edward T. Hall, whose

studies consist of proxemic and kinesic explorations, which assigns relative animal and

human distances in public spaces. This body of work is meant to reintroduce the city and its

inhabitants to the viewer, to look at the stranger, and to look at ourselves.