Baskin Robbins is infested with roaches. I know this because when I worked there I would sometimes catch a fleck of brown darting motion out the corner of my eye and have to stifle a scream in the face of an innocent customer. But there amidst the fluorescent saccharine fantasy was something deeply creepy and disturbing hidden right beneath the surface. I think that it was during the seminar on proper mopping techniques that I had my epiphany: Baskin Robbins survived on false facades. The average customer had no idea that the beautiful pink swirls in the ice cream turned tar black when left in a melted puddle on the floor for a day.  This ugliness lurking under an exaggeratedly sweet surface has permeated my artwork and become the underlying theme within my paintings. My decisions are steered by my belief in art as a conglomeration of creativity, production, theory and contemporaneity.

            The overwhelming, intricate and saturated life experiences that we are all submerged in, ranging from a shopping experience at a 99 cent store to watching a game show on TV with your grandma and her yippy dog, are all sources that I pull from and mix into my work. The odd and unique figures that are scattered throughout my work are intentionally designed to force the viewer to reconsider the facelessness of a stranger.  The usage of pictorial motifs experienced as exotic, the development of highly ornamented backgrounds, the manipulation of off-beat saturated color, and the intertwining of layers of imagery in a mass of line work are all done in order to bring the surface of my paintings into a startling relationship with the sensual richness of the experience of life, culture, and world. I both embrace and poke fun at the issues surrounding my work whether it be regarding the shopping experience or the physicality of exaggerated people, all in a desire to archeologically dissect the many layers that exist in our world. I force the viewer to visually untangle my paintings like a knotted mass of string in an experience that mimics that of the real world; an instant overwhelming lack of readability that is then followed by a submersion in sorting details and focal points.   

            In my work I intend to undertake a deep investigation into the expression of that which lies under a façade while revealing to the viewer that surface appraisals crumble when all layers are overturned. My focus is in creating work that clearly communicates culturally analytical themes via the utilization of optically rich icons and symbols.  Through my analysis of culture, whether it be visual or conceptual, I hope to unravel meaningful insights in regards to the societal practices that swirl around us all.