Can an artist tell the full story of a person's life in a single image?
No. But it is possible to tell a story about that life, which is compelling, layered, and resonates with both the subject and the viewer. As a portrait artist, I try to tell those stories through lighting, pose, expression, wardrobe, cropping, and the careful selection of meaningful objects to symbolically and subtly create an image which truthfully conveys something essential about the sitter.

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I've always had an obsession with the human face and the micro-expression---how the slightest tension at the corner of the mouth or contraction of the lacrimal muscle of the inner tear duct can communicate emotional nuance. 

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Neuroscientists have identified an area of the human brain called the fusiform face area (FFA). It is activated when we view the human face. It allows us to recognize and read facial expression, opening the door to empathy. I suspect my own FFA is working full throttle at all times. It's a quality which makes me particularly well-suited to portraiture but might prove problematic if I wished to advance in a career with the DMV.

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It's often said that "the camera doesn't lie", but I've always felt that the camera is incapable of telling the truth---owing to any number of technical limitations of the equipment and creative decisions of the photographer. Although I work from photographic references, they serve only as a point of departure. I am not interested on recreating a photograph in oil paint or pencil. I'm using those tools to "build a person" as they are or were in real life, with an almost three-dimensional sense of form, presence, and permanence.

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My portraits begin long before I pick up a pencil or paint brush—with conversation, observation, and taking dozens (and occasionally hundreds) of photographs. I study those images, while sketching their face, eyes, hands, until I've attained a sculptor’s grasp of volume, proportion, and spatial presence. This sustained focus on physical form gradually yields to a deeper understanding of the character that animates appearance. I try to really look at the subject and (if I am very lucky) to actually see them. I then have the privilege of expressing my insights in the language of graphite, watercolor, or oil paint.

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Grounded in traditions of Old Master techniques for painting and canvas preparation, my work employs the exactitude of contemporary hyperrealism while drawing on the classical realist and romantic traditions. Each painting or drawing is built over hundreds of hours of sustained focus and concentration. Returning to a portrait day after day, over the course of weeks and sometimes months, allows an image to evolve toward its fullest potential. 

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The precision and detail, characteristic of my work allows the viewer to engage with it from across a room, or up close and personal. Knowing that every hair, every pore, every stray thread is there because it was put there by intention invites the viewer to really pause and contemplate the work itself, the subject it represents, and hopefully themselves---making each portrait as much meditation as representation. 

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