Bio

I am a Bronx native and longtime resident who works in a variety of mediums, using bright vibrant color and movement to create representational as well as abstract paintings and drawings in oil, acrylic, charcoal, and mixed media. I love to travel around the world to see and experience how others live. When I return, I create work that chronicles my travels around the city and around the globe, resulting in pieces inspired by everything from djembe players in Bronx parks to joyful dancers on the streets of Cape Town South Africa, or the North Atlantic Ocean during a hurricane to a trumpeter on the streets of Habana Cuba. I seek to not only document the subjects in the moment but also capture the feelings that radiate from them. My greatest muse is music, especially jazz. Wherever I go I seek out the musicians, sometimes to portray them, and other times to abstractly portray the way their music makes me feel. My representational work consists largely of portraits and full body paintings from life. I am a student at the New York Art Students league where over the past two years I’ve studied oil painting from life under the tutelage of renowned portrait artist Sharon Sprung. Her work includes the White House collection portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama as well as those of many other notable figures. I see the work of such exceptional representational artists as Sharon Sprung and Kehinde Wiley as my North Star guiding me to ever better mastery of representational art. In my abstract painting I use the same principles of balance, color, contrast, and movement used in my life paintings to create nonfigurative works whose color, movement and texture captivates the viewer. There is no one definition of any of these pieces, though the title always hints at my vision. I take my time to ensure the title succinctly states what I see, though it is not the only answer to the question of the piece’s meaning. I want the viewer to engage with my work and interpret it through their own experience. Following other pursuits, I strayed from my art for many years until I saw a show by Ed Clark. His abstract work absolutely fascinated me, his use of color and bold lines and his technique of using a push broom to create his awesome pieces just blew me away. He inspired me to return to my art with renewed passion. I have shown my work at numerous venues including the Hyatt Hotel, Nyack NY, The Sheraton Hotel, Washington DC as part of the Harlem Fine Arts Show (HFAS), the Glass House, NYC, HFAS, the X House, Nyack NY, Gallery 18, Bronx, NY, and other local venues.