Throughout the years, I have pursued consistent themes and concerns in my work: the aspiration for individual authenticity and a romantic sense of transcendence. I presented these attempts in the form of the grand gesture, moments of melodrama, flights of fancy, or delusions of grandeur leavened with irony to concede the inevitable folly of my quest.
In my earlier paintings, I applied conventions of representation and illustration to crystalize these illusions; my sculptures juxtaposed a sense of individual self with mass consumption; and my music videos hyper-animated my hormone-fueled fantasies in the common language of popular culture and entertainment.
My latest body of work is focused on peeling back the veneer of the seemingly confident alter-ego or projected self to present something more exposed and uncertain. This series of paintings centers on the desire for personal connection and understanding in a shared experience. These desires are motivated by a sense of romantic love, intense nostalgia, and a conflicted form of honor. I offset these ideas with humor and poignancy, depicting them in memory-conjured scenarios and metaphoric realms of fantasy.
This imagery is presented as a means of grappling with the perceived expectations, obligations, and consequences of straight masculinity as I learned them as an only child in a desolate small town in the midwest with an imposing parochial education system.
I use an expressionistic painting language to give immediacy to these complex, in-the-moment interpersonal dynamics. I’m attempting to align the way we experience an artwork with the consciousness of the depicted figures as they try to navigate through their predicaments.
I draw on my own life experiences to explore a world of familial intimacy, its impact on adolescent sexuality, and the resulting complicated yearning for personal joy as an adult. Throughout my work, I contrast scenes of sensual pleasure with satire to confront my anxieties and guilt as I seek closure from the past and hope for a better future.