Laguna College of Art + Design

Age of Innocence celebrates a special time of life. In my oil paintings, I explore the quiet moments in childhood. As a child, I remember the freedom I felt—the freedom to play and dream. Children have an incredible ability to forgive complete…

My thesis work Everything is Hours is a seven-by-seven-foot oil panting on canvas that explores our shared yet unconscious connections to this world and its elements. In this square made up of three canvases, I depict how cycles of time, the seasons…

Half an Optimist, Half a Pessimist explores the idea of life as a resource of both positive and negative moods. As an artist, I use oil painting to tell stories about how I face life. In half of my paintings, I was an optimist. I created an ideal wo…

For me, the word “artist” is interchangeable with the word “seeker.” I see myself as having been on this path for a lifetime, and what keeps me moving forward—adding skills, learning theory, studying history, observing …

Meta-Figures is a series of paintings using the human figurative form as a means of expressing the subconscious. These singular figures and faces are created from my imagination using an intuitive process where one mark leads to another. The fo…

My large scale drawings use depictions of the human figure to address the influence of society and electronic media on personal versus public identity. The messages that the media communicates have affected my opinion of myself, as well as my though…

Through my study of landscape and portraiture I have found that there are many ways of interpreting and composing a representation of the world. This body of work represents earthquakes and disasters with the knowledge that I have gained from my stu…

My recent body of work delves into the peculiar absurdity of my American experience, using iconic county fair imagery to engage with the excesses, hopes, violence, and delusions pervasive in American culture. Humor becomes my tool to navigate and co…

This piece was included in the Society of Illustrators 63rd Exhibition.

Instinct represents an exploration of an inner wilderness by way of an outer one, premised on my beliefs about the continuity of these seemingly disparate landscapes. This body of work is meant to trace the organic growth and evolution of a project …

There is power in rhythmic images. This series of artworks is meant to discover the presence of patterns in a project that could be seen as introspective and exploratory. Sewing patterns, patterned fabrics and papers, charcoals, and soft pastels ble…

Solitude is something that resonates with all of us, whether we like it or not. Philosophers and psychologists have spent ages studying how we respond to it. My thesis paintings capture my own feelings and reflections on solitude. In my art, I often…

A Bridge between Worlds is a series of narrative paintings that explore symbolism and allegory. They are executed in a traditional, representational style, synthesizing the classical, naturalist, symbolist, and contemporary genres of painting. The a…

Jonathon Shay, in Achilles in Vietnam, wrote that he is “deeply opposed to war, but just as deeply respectful of the soldier” (Shay1994, 206). This sentiment reflects my exact feelings and motivations for the seven paintings in my thesis…

The people that I have painted in my MFA thesis series have suffered indignities, hardship, and sometimes the loss of their individual freedoms. Due to a variety of circumstances, they found themselves in situations that were dire. Often, their live…

In the film American Psycho, Patrick Bateman stares blankly at his reflection in the mirror as he states, “There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory—I sim…

Unconditional Love of a Gentle Soul focuses on human connections. I draw inspiration from the relationships that I have with people around me, who are both unique and artistic. By choosing to dig deep and highlighting the most vulnerable everyday mo…

My thesis, Dying for a Change, explores the story telling of my own hero’s journey that is yet to be fully completed. Through simile, I draw comparison between my work and my journey through life up to this point by reliving darker times and d…