Artist's Statement

Once upon a time, I worked as a software engineer. I lived a quiet, boring life, eating a lot of takeout salads and going to tech conferences. I also liked to draw, though, and I started keeping a sketchbook. One day, I got fed up with software, so I decided to get married, ride a bicycle across the country, and fill up more four more sketchbooks, instead. After a year on the road and then a four-year trip back to art school, I went back to writing software, too - but I was never quite the same again. 

I make art because it forces me away from the abstract world of code and into the real one. Art makes me use my eyes and it makes me use my hands. My practice is rooted first and foremost in observation and documentation - I create visual diaries and records of my experiences. My paintings and drawings frequently return to fleeting and memorable experiences: a walk through the woods I explored as a child; the feeling of swimming in a murky lake; my cat rolling over to show me his belly. Drawing and painting are tools I use to inhabit, relive, and understand my own life.

I use slow, tactile media: oil paint, ink, oil pastels, watercolor and fiber. However, I can’t quite get away from my programmer’s brain - my work is frequently complicated with digital tools and abstract ways of thought. My practice lives in the genuinely heartfelt irony of painting real life (as I remember it) from a low-quality digital photograph I reconstructed in my studio with an iPad.