ARTIST STATEMENT

I spent the first seven years of my life growing up in rural Canada in an existential crisis, aware that I was not like other people. I was six years old and already planning my getaway. Walking two miles to school and two miles home, five days a week in thirty-five below zero, I wondered how far I would get if I made a run for it. Then, somewhere around my twelfth birthday, I had the revelation that no one was like anyone.  That epiphany got me through a few more years there and as time passed I came to understand that it was also the truth behind all authentic art.

Before grade school began, I learned to draw by copying the newspaper funnies, and at fifteen my father gave me a camera. From that point on painting and photography held each other up, and provided relief from the other when needed.  Whether it’s the mid century modern backgrounds on my recent bird paintings or the portraits of contemporary residents in my New Yorkers and California Dreamers books, both mediums are processing popular culture.