The still life is used in my paintings as a starting off point to give a focus to paint and the real concentration is on the harmonies and handling of the paint.  I like to limit my paintings to one or two objects and separate them from the original setting to focus on my interpretation.  My subjects are often of common items dealing with nostalgia, like in my painting Cup and Spoon where I exaggerated the scale and paint in a style and color that feels retro or a throwback to an earlier time.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the American culture and how each generation reinvents it’s self and what has been left behind as a result

            I believe nostalgia serves a purpose in describing cultural shifts by examining the context to my relationships with objects around me.  I like painting domestic objects such as a blender or an iron because it describes a lot of who I am and the contrast between my generation and generations before mine.  In my home I do most of the cooking and share the household chores with my wife, which is quit different then how I remember it in my grandparents home.  My work relates directly to my family life and legacy as a running commentary on who I am and where I came from.

            This is why my work invites discovery, even though the objects are ordinary.  I load the paint full of experience and express it in the color and handling of the paint.  It is my intention to take something ordinary and make it larger than life and to fill it with something deeper than a simple rendering.  For me painting lends this opportunity to experience this transformation through the process and act of rendering a three dimensional object onto a flat surface.  The Still Life gives me the starting point to begin the process of transforming and interpreting my life experience into paint.