I was born in White Plains,  New York and at age 8 moved to Newburgh, New York where I continue
to reside to this day. I have been drawing since I was 4 or 5 years old and was fascinated by comic
books and cartoon animation. Both of my parents were from artistic backgrounds and gave me a
basic understanding of drawing shapes and using color. I was continuously drawing throughout my
childhood and into my teenage years, first copying cartoons and comics and later creating more free-
form, abstract work that was influenced by Grafitti Art and Surrealism. As I advanced and learned
more about other artists, I became influenced by Dondi White, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, M.C. Esher,
Picasso, H.R. Giger, and Robert Crumb to name a few. I didn’t know I wanted to follow art as a career
until my senior year in high school. At that time it was clear that creating art was an essential part of
my everyday life and my notebooks were constantly filled with drawings. I made it a goal to attend
art school after graduation to better my understanding of art and design.
In 2005, I became a Parsons School of Design graduate in Fine Art Illustration. Throughout
the ten years after graduation, I freelanced for several clothing companies, worked as a Graphic
Designer at a print shop and a lighting fixture company and took on various odd jobs while
continuing to produce art, have shows, and explore a wide variety of mediums and subject matter. In
2010, I had an opportunity to take part in an Artist in Residency program in Bali, Indonesia for 3
months under the direction of an incredible artist, Dewa Nyoman Batuan, who specialized in Mandala
paintings. The experience of Balinese culture coupled with the teachings of an artist who had truly
mastered his craft, created a life changing impact on my creative process and pushed me to another
level of dedication and focus with regard to making work and exploring inspiration. Once I returned,
I completed an entire series of my own Mandala paintings and began to really delve into themes
about higher consciousness, evolution, and expansion.
In the years that followed, I created a number of series, perpetually finding new ways to
transform the recognizable into detailed, complex images that were rendered with the intention of
giving insight into other imagined planes of existence. The work was attempting to convey some
essence, some rooted feeling or perception of possibility, by combining the abstract with realism and
adding layers of intricacy that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. This practice of transforming
and pushing through into the unknown never failed to create ongoing inspiration for new works of
art (something that has remained true through the present day).
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