Rethinking the romanticized religious art of the past is a constant theme in my work. How does it change an image or trope when the subject is swapped out for another? Isn’t any life-form miracle enough to be venerated? What do we want to prop up, a single life, or life itself? • The transcendental idea that no inch or particle of the living world is vile in its pure form is what I cling to recently. That seems the best path towards a more beautiful world, and more beauty requires us to first recognize MORE things as being beautiful. Like the puffer fish.

Every painting or drawing is a portraiture in some way. Odd Nerdrum said that artists can be grouped into 2 categories: those who have something to say, and those who do not.

In this portrait as a sunflower I feel I’m saying, “I am older, but at peace in my craft. My tools are sharpened. I have something to say. I am not like the others. I will not shrink or bend, not yet. Not while there are still things to be said.”

One way in, one way out. I think birth is an under utilized form of portraiture, and the best visual aid to remind the viewer of the marvel of existence and life.