Generations are shaped by the cultures that surround them. It is highly unlikely that Michelangelo would sculpt his Pieta during the Jazz Age. Even more unlikely, Pollack would never have created his action paintings during the Renaissance. Artists are limited by the time they occupy. What is unique about my generation is the globalization of culture that shapes it. I was born in January 1980. I have never lived in a world without cable television, multiplexes, computers and other forms of mass media. The volume, speed and detail of information changed tremendously in my youth.

The contemporary media is nearly another sense to me. Many of my first memories are connected to movies and television. Live coverage and breaking news have taken on a new meaning during my lifetime. In elementary, every student in my school watched live as the Challenger shuttle exploded during launch. Social events like these trace my entire childhood—the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square, the first invasion of Iraq, riots in Los Angeles, and the ATF action in Waco are just a few. The presentation of these events sometimes became more intense than the actual event. Access and volume of information is key to my development. Constantly, images and conspiracies bounce from satellites to televisions and over broadband to every computer in the world.

The volume of information and the ease of presentation is at the heart of contemporary art. Art tries to capture contemporary life. Music, video, even news is offered by a multitude of outlets. Hundreds of television channels, thousands of radio stations, and millions of websites all stream across the eyes of my generation. This constant movement is captured by art on film, video and in music. My peers have expressed life within this streaming media using contemporary tools.

My paintings attempt to define contemporary media onto canvas. This effort appears in three distinct plans in this portfolio. The Adult Lullaby gallery captures a couple in movement and interaction. A story unfolds through the series with each canvas acting as a video still. The viewer is left to interpret the dialogue, sounds and resolution. On My Mind is a series of ten paintings unified but completely unique. Each canvas has multiple layers. Printed news media pasted to raw canvas begins each painting. A layer of stenciling creates another layer of texture. Impasto and washes of sketches and design build more texture and color. Layers mimicking bar code exist on each canvas just below a skyline painting. These layers create a unique perspective to each painting. Yet the excerpts are from the same story and the skylines are of the same city taken from the same rooftop. The layers represent media, truth and perception. The unifying traits of each painting are truth. The words and textures are media. Perception is left completely to each viewer. I mean to represent the many different views formed by an era full of so much noise.

Finally, Almost, Alone…before and after fuses these last two efforts. A layer of stenciled impasto tells a full story unique to each canvas. The stories combine across the canvases to state individual experiences formed from a similar experience. Each background blurs to confuse reality while each individual is captured candidly. Unique to this series is the scale. The viewer at a distance sees only an image of a person. Stepping closer, the image distorts and words appear. As the viewer moves even closer, the words reveal themselves and the image becomes pure abstraction. Thus, what once was a simple picture becomes complex and abstract as more information is revealed.

My statement throughout these galleries remains the same—the world is a simple picture built upon many complex layers. Man separates himself from the animals by not merely surviving but complicating the world. Language, science, and religion are key to human history. No matter what time or place—culture exists. Within every culture there is more complication. From currency and fashion to marriage ceremonies and death rites, man is wonderfully complicated. Just within my wallet i have four different identities beyond my name—a driver’s license, a credit card, an atm card and a health insurance id. Just within my driver’s license i am a name, a driver’s license number, a transaction number, and a social security number. A certificate marked my birth and one will mark my death—between the labels and numbers are countless. Forget about evolution and creationism—the debate of my generation is how complicated the picture can become.

My challenge as i develop my art is to not just comment on the present but to connect my generation to the past. I want to bind my paintings and words to the classic movements. I think that art should both defy history and honor it. New styles and statements are necessary for art to grow. Art should never copy the past. However, every artist has been influenced and inspired by other art. It is essential to recognize masters, but even more essential to connect modern time to them.

I continue to study the great works in art and literature specifically since Impressionism. I have attempted in Almost, Alone…before and after to connect my work to great works of that period. Specifically, i studied the poses and angles of Manet, Caillebotte and Cassatt. In general, Van Gogh, Matisse, Duchamp, Braque, and Johns influence my painting style. Sartre, Emerson, Fitzgerald, Kerouac and Dylan influence my writing. The Lost Generation and the Beats influenced the words behind these images. These great names only begin a list of thousands of key figures in my development. The fact is, in a world as thick and rich as the modern age, influences come from far outside of art and literature. Furthermore, like the complication of man, my development will continue throughout my career.

The importance of knowing the past is to better explain the present. Thus, i must know what has been done. Furthermore, i want to be capable of communicating my ideas to their fullest. I study what and who has succeeded before me. Following the pattern throughout history, my generation will bridge the gap to the last and allow the future generations to follow. The complication of man will continue. As throughout history, each generation will try to explain it further. Here, i have begun to do my part.

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