PROCESS: I have an unexplainable urge that makes me want to make stuff: paint, draw, write, build, craft, sew, etc. An idea enters my mind and then I move to get it out with a medium that seems to best convey what I want to express.

The calm at the center of all that making is my love for oil painting. For me, oil painting stands apart from other mediums because it's not so much about the making of the painting, though that is an important part, as it is more like a meditation. When I'm fully engaged with an oil painting, time slips away and I fuse with my brushes, the oils and the canvas. I don't have to think, my hands just know what to do.

As for my ideas, they come from my life; what I read, the experiences I have, the movies I see, my dreams, all of my learning, the people I know, the time I live in, everything - it all enters my brain and mingles together and well, you can see the results.

STYLE: My art has been called surreal, visionary, fantastic realism, magic realism, symbolist, mythical, art of the imagination...

Labels are difficult, especially in art because they are loaded and have a specific historical context. I seek out artist and art-works in the above mentioned genres for inspiration and knowledge, though I do not consider myself one of them for they are of another time. I am comfortable stating only that I am a contemporary artist at the turn of the 21st Century who works in a figurative style. The rest I'll leave to history.

TECHNIQUE: In my paintings I use an old master's mixed technique in the tradition of Van Eyke and Albrecht Durer. The technique employs the building up of alternating layers of oil glazes and egg tempera to achieve painterly effects like atmosphere, tonality, modeling, luminosity and a high level of detail.