ARTIST STATEMENT

I've been making art from my imagination for as long as I can remember. I create symbols, textures, imagery, text and composition that merge into something cohesive enough to tell a story. It's also important for me to embrace and celebrate the qualities of whichever medium I'm using. My spontaneous approach to the surface comes from my heart, instinct, and disregard for making “mistakes.” I believe that the paints can tell their own stories if you let them speak and not control them too much. Controlled amnesia is a term I like to describe how I most often go about making art. I need to have just enough spontaneous reaction to my marks and gestures, almost as if I forgot what I did 5 seconds ago. I often use glossy and flat black lines to fragment and organize my compositions. Highlights and reflections will change to reveal more imagery as one's body moves around the paintings. I find much inspiration from the people, places and cultures I discover in online virtual worlds. When I'm not logged into a computer or in my studio making art, I enjoy discovering inspiration in nature by hiking with my dog... especially in the snow. I'm influenced by artists like Kandinski, Dove, Bacon, Klein and Matisse.

In most of my current work, I'm expressing that we live in troubled and fragmented times. This fact contrasts and magnifies the good times, which I believe society must forever cling to.  Even in my more colorful "up beat" pieces, I try to use strange perspectives, textures, and text to promote darker interpretations. When I'm creating a piece specifically inspired from virtual online worlds and people, I implement images and symbols of “the grid” which is commonly referred to as the network of computers that combine to make up continuous flow of information for an online world to exist. I also commonly use graffiti in these pieces to commemorate specific virtual locations, events, and avatar names. Even within the virtual world drawings, I incorporate real life imagery that may speak about or symbolize current events around me. Similarly, I apply current virtual world happenings into real life inspired artworks. I'm forever trying to learn more about art, painting, drawing, and myself.  I live in Tyngsboro Massachusetts with my wife Anya and dog Monkey.

EDUCATION

BFA in Fine Art from Montserrat College of Art in 1999.

WORK EXPERIENCE

2007-Present Owner/Director of CounterpART Gallery in Lowell MA.

2006-Present  Artist/Educator/Lecturer

Munroe Center for the Arts

2004-2006 Executive Director and Curator.

2000-2004  Education Director.

1998-2000 Fine Arts Teacher.

AFFILIATIONS

Chair of Tyngsboro Cultural Council

Board Member of Lexington Chamber of Commerce

Cary Memorial Library Art Committee

Boston Cyberarts Festival

EXHIBITIONS

SOLO SHOWS

"Adventures of Filthy Fluno" at The Spot in Providence RI. Dec-Jan 09

"Abstract Narratives" at CounterpART Gallery, Lowell, MA. Oct - Nov '08

"Adventures of Filthy Fluno" at Revolving Museum, Lowell, MA. Sept '07

The Piper Gallery at Cary Library, Lexington, MA. August '07

Private Exhibit, Le Manoir des Essarts Normandy, France. July '07

Jacques-Jeanneney Gallery, Pusaiye, France. July '07

Big Car Gallery, Indianapolis, IN. June '07

Gallery 555, Porto, Portugal. April '07

“SL Portraits” Aho Museum, New Media Consortium. July 2006

“Mirrored Drawings”

Angel Dorei Museum. October 2006

GROUP SHOWS

"Abstractions" The Space, Lowell MA. Oct 09-Current

"Traversing Sweet Illusions" Boston Cyberarts Festival 2009. 

"Synthetic Masquerade"

SOMARTS Main Gallery. San Francisco CA. November 2008.

"Crater Bay Area"

San Jose Instititue of Contemporary Art. San Jose CA. July - Aug 2008. 

"Crater New York"

Location One. SOHO, NYC. September 2007. 

"SLCC Art Exhibition"

Chicago Hilton, Chicago, IL. August 2007

"Concerning Spirituality"

Museum of Fine Art. New Bedford, MA. April 2000

“Arty Sound Pipes"

Sound Installation. Cabot Street Gallery, Monserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA June 1999

LECTURES

"Artists in the Virtual World" University of the Arts in Philadelphia PA.  Oct 2009

"Artists in the Virtual World" Montserrat College of Art 2009

"Artists in SL" Ditton Editions in Salem MA.

"How SL changed my RL" Hofstra University. 2008

"Art and Second Life"  IBM Almaden Research in San Jose, CA 2008

"Art and Second Life" Big Car Gallery in  Indianapolis, IN. 2008

"Success in SL Art"  Oyster Bay Art Center (live internet broadcast) 2007

"Insight into the Filthy Mind"  New Media Consortium. (live internet broadcast) 2007

"Insight into the Filthy Mind" Artisan  Galleria (live internet broadcast)

2007

"Hackers" Orange Telecom (live internet broadcast) 2007

The Brooklyn Rail
NPR's Studio 360 (audio)
Die Zeit in Germany
SLNN Next Magazine (slnn.com)
Slart^TM Magazine

The Lowell Sun

Art Magazine, Germany

The Art Newspaper, England

Slatenight.com