SUGAR HOLLOW

BIO

I am a Native Bay Area person, born in SF then moved over to the East Bay when I was very young and grew up in Berkeley.  I left Berkeley after high school and lived in Boston three years and another three or so in Charlottesville, VA to pursue a degree in government and political science at the University of Virginia.  This gave me an opportunity to experience life in three distinct areas of the country.  All of which have their favors.  The Bay Area being the progressive Metropolis that formed me.  Boston being one of the more charming old American cities and Irish cities, with not one but two Irish radio stations.  And Charlottesville, a city town in middle of Virginia jungle with urban and rural taste.  I spent much time hiking the dense forests of Appalachians which I think later formed my love of the environment.

    As I grew older, I realized I was not able to truly reach people by politics, gross PR, and media manipulation which I had studied in school.  I have always been artist to some degree, drawing and cartooning mostly, but I began to make painting my primary focus, inspired by Musician friends, political artists of the WPA, Germany, and Latin American artists. 

     I particually like the subversive and obvious style of the Latin American Artists. Here I am particularly thinking of Jorge de la Vega, and Antonio Berni, as well as other Latin Artist with some times crude and other times cloaked political imagery.  I remember working in an art gallery in San Francisco and being drawn to Carlos Cartegenia’s work, images of dogs with candles in their mouths, razors wing beings, etc. all made sense in Carlos being a son of El Salvadoran civil war.  Or Oscar Bernal's regal or butcher images, what made the work interesting was using metaphor to comment on politics. 

     Later I became interested in soothing the revolutionary mind state and how that could be achieved through monochromatic painting.  I love to use rich color, evoke emotion and be strong in that way.   I began working on a ethereal series which is centered on more philisophical state of minds.  Still with environmental and political themes, the painting consentrates and focuses the mind, soothes, and at same time makes it's point. I also like to use minimal forms.  And the very trance, breathing like, motion a simple brush stroke, done over and over again by the artist can represent to the viewer.  This done uptil the nuance of the piece in revealed.  And then simplicity and color are meant then to reveal a truth not just in the picture but how it was achieved.  The painting using unified color and simple form hopefully freeing and focusing the mind into a theme and a trance.  

   I have also began Printmaking. I have made a book of about 32 mono-prints and series related to the book which are on my website. I have also done plates on cell breakdown, stem cells and evolution. Further, I have a series to do with Tasmanian Tiger, an extinct creature with Bigfoot type folklore, being a investigation into truth, and cloning issues.  The image of the Thalacine just haughts me. And question of cloning exstinct creatures to me is provocative in a wholistic context.

   The current theme I working on is solace in place.  Making abstract map like canvases. Although I often go back and revist other themes .