Artist State­ment

Adding to the global effort and con­ver­sa­tion sup­port­ing pos­i­tive change has always been impor­tant to me. I sup­port for­ward activist think­ing and believe that my artis­tic expres­sion helps peo­ple break through the noise to bet­ter com­pre­hend the ever-chang­ing issues we face as evolv­ing soci­eties. My work aims to place the viewer in a com­plex sit­u­a­tion to chal­lenge and soften their con­vic­tions, so they can achieve greater under­stand­ing for a com­mon good.

I con­stantly con­front my inse­cu­ri­ties by expos­ing my ego and phys­i­cal being to a mass audi­ence in the pub­lic arena. Open­ing myself to crit­i­cism is uncom­fort­able for me, but it offers per­sonal growth and an oppor­tu­nity to per­ceive an audience’s reac­tion to a pre­sented idea. I believe that by shar­ing expe­ri­ences, we con­tribute to and assist each other in self-dis­cov­ery, so we can all achieve our under­lin­ing desire for greater wis­dom.

Unfor­tu­nately, pop­u­la­tions are slow when adopt­ing change or let­ting go of man-cre­ated-belief-sys­tems that are designed to dehu­man­ize or restrict life expe­ri­ence. The dogma, whether it is reli­gious or social, rein­forces the secu­rity of stay­ing within group think­ing. This cocoon­ing, no mat­ter how irra­tional it is, insu­lates and takes away a level of ques­tion­ing, because it is often con­vic­tion based, instead of fact based. And this can solid­ify absur­dity as truth. It then allows peo­ple to act fool­ishly, con­tra­dict­ing their val­ues. It can also pre­vent some­one from see­ing a truth. For this rea­son, I seek to dis­sect and human­ize sit­u­a­tions, mak­ing them more famil­iar, by cre­at­ing art that ques­tions issues or objects to arouse indi­vid­ual think­ing that sup­ports pos­i­tive trans­for­ma­tion.

I was appalled by the dis­re­gard and con­tempt of the Regan admin­is­tra­tion and the self-right­eous sen­ti­ment in the United States at the begin­ning of the AIDS crises. Serv­ing their own agenda, they allowed fel­low human beings to per­ish instead of hit­ting the issue head-on and cur­tail­ing the pan­demic. Hence “Silent March” was born. When I stood in pub­lic space as part of the site-spe­cific instal­la­tion, I expe­ri­enced first-hand how it touched peo­ple. Facial expres­sion changed as passersby con­tem­plated the non-dis­crim­i­nat­ing dev­as­ta­tion that AIDS was hav­ing on soci­ety through an iden­ti­fy­ing object - shoes - belong­ing to vic­tims of the dis­ease.

Art inspires us. It helps us reeval­u­ate our think­ing and moral under­stand­ing. It gives me voice and a vehi­cle to standup for a more just soci­ety. I aim to touch peo­ple in a pro­found to touch peo­ple in a pro­found way and give per­spec­tive into the issues we ques­tion. I cer­tainly do not have solu­tions and strug­gle with many ques­tions. But, it is my con­tin­ued goal with the help of oth­ers to reach a larger audi­ence and add dimen­sion to our ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tions.

My life has been devoted to this com­bined pas­sion of art and advo­cate. I do believe in the good­ness of peo­ple. But since child­hood, I have been plagued by the cru­elty and the dis­par­ity that human­ity sub­jects itself to. It is that which shapes my ideas but in and of itself, it does not com­fort my pain. This may explain why my painted work tran­si­tioned into a dif­fer­ent type of reduc­tive pro­found­ness when I started to develop large-scale projects that addressed con­cerns.

I am deeply thank­ful for those who enrich my life expe­ri­ence by liv­ing and shar­ing their pas­sions. They help me in my jour­ney to evolve and become more com­pas­sion­ate and inclu­sive. It is through my life’s work that I sup­port our human right to live in soci­eties that attain aspi­ra­tions of hap­pi­ness, higher learn­ing, equal­ity, peace and abun­dance. Join me by tak­ing time to con­sider my body of work and sup­port its inten­tion.