Where were you born & raised? How has that affected your view of the world to your understanding?
Born in a new age hippie-ish community in Paradise Valley Montana and have lived in Colorado, Washington State, all over California, New Jersey, New York, technically Texas for a sec, back to all over California, and back and forth between LA and New York some more. This resulted in an awareness and appreciation for the country, seeing the commonalities and also differences of American life, it also left me constantly thinking nothing was permanent and also in flux or chaos, and art was the single constant in my life.
Explain the draw to Mythology in your work.
Mythology is often some of the most relevant material to draw on when trying to make sense of the present. These myths play out over and over, throughout time. Icarus has been present both in my personal choices and in the trajectories of countless other
Why did you drop out of UCLA so close to a Degree?
I left CalArts a semester early from getting my MFA because things in full swing at Praxis, there was a city to be built.
Explain your process as if a child is asking.
My process is highly reliant on my childhood self, the method of my drawings and paintings is really just an evolution of the work I was making at 4-7 years old. There's a painting of clouds and the Grateful Dead skull I made when I was Around 6 that could probably have a place in this show if it still exists somewhere. My process is just a visualization of the notes of that present moment. I'm just big kid scribbling and then putting a conceptual coat on my shoulders.
Can you remember who first introduced you to art? Or was it self-influenced?
My dad and I used to paint together. Album art was a massive influence. The most influential thing in terms of my investment and consistent obsession with art was just the sure zen I have always found when deep in the mode of drawing.
How developed do you feel as an artist? Honestly.
27% , this last 6 months just feels like I'm waking up again. Artists never retire, the work is never really done, the process just seems to be feeling right, so this feels like the time to really develop, rise from the icarus fall like a Phoenix.
What does a day look like when you're not in the studio working?
Recently fantasy football obsession and trying to return to nature. I def be reading and making music and trying to find more inner peace but I'm still falling victim to the plagues of our generation be that social media or the constant feeling of rapid change, even if I'm self aware about it I'm probably also at a 27% of where I need to be to in development as a person, and the times outside the studio need to be spent even more in nature, with the people who really matter in my life and with myself finding my true inner voice again.
What mediums would you like to explore next?
*no response*
When did you decide to venture into Gonzo-Style journaling?
When I couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve and my older cousin Ryan who was also always awake told me to read Hells Angels by Hunter S Thompson at like age 10 or 11.
Explain Gonzo-Style journaling.
Gonzo was the term coined to describe an article by Hunter S Thompson, a type of journalism where the writer the first person is inserted in the middle of the narrative. " It is an energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist." It's pretty cliche at this point to be this referential to Thompson specifically and that era of journalism as a whole, but it always felt relevant to me to describe what I do as a visual artist. "Gonzo Style Journaling" seems right for the way these drawings and paintings play out, there daily visual note taking, the iconography floating around is often in reference to be "the artist" and the first person narrative of what I'm thinking about any given Sunday.
Why art?
Eternity.
