I strive to make pictures no one has ever seen before, including, or perhaps especially myself. Sometimes I do this by using subject matter that is stubbornly disjointed (Andrew Jackson fights pteradons). Sometimes I build from a foundation of common knowledge from the collective subconscious to create something that has never been depicted visually (Bela Lugosi wielding a syringe, Robert Johnson selling his soul… it seems there should be paintings of these things; someone had to do it). Sometimes an image that has been interpreted by artists for centuries seems ripe for a renovation (Birth of Venus).



My work is about extremes, about what is to be gained by going too far. When I first begin to put an idea into form, I ask myself how to make it ”more-so”. Can the color be more intense? Can the lighting be more dramatic? Can the pose be more contorted? Can the subject matter be more surprising? Can the composition be more dynamic? Can the premise be more surrealistic? But it’s not a question of maximalism for its own delightful sake, in the end the real question is whether my visual choices serve the story. I’m not interested in garishness, I just simply believe that anything worth doing is worth doing all the way; that no real progress gets made without pushing boundaries