My paintings combine realistic or representational images in a symbolic yet arbitrary, fractured format and include the following subjects: quirky urban, suburban, rural landscapes and still life. The reasons for choosing certain subjects to paint are based on personal experience, observation, conscious thought and dream imagery. I have lived most of my life on the south side of Chicago so I have an intimate acquaintance with a sense of grid patterning and sensory overload that is inherent to urban living. Anyone living in a major city is aware of the surreal atmosphere of urbanization.

Some of my current paintings are concerned with recording isolated or neglected prairies and woods ignored by suburban and industrial sprawl. The still life forms refer to archeological and found objects that are composed in a free form kind of juxtaposed imagery based on personal iconography. The figurative paintings are a combination of the following: sociopolitical manipulation, racial issues, anthropology, sociology, religion, rituals, isolation, humor, violence, etc. Also, to throw in an element of chance and spontaneity, I begin most paintings by pouring and blotting the canvas with thin washes of acrylic paint to create Rorschach-like shapes.