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Whether as a child or during the first part of your career, who or what were your earliest artistic influences?

As a child American illustrators fascinated me and realists like N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parish.

As a student I was interested in 20th Century Surrealists like Max Ernst, Dali, Balthus and Picabia.

How have those influences carried through to your work today?

I spent many years experimenting with different forms of abstraction but thoseearly influences kept pushing me back to a more pictorial approach.

Would you say your work is driven by form, or content?

As a narrative painter I think it's an even measure of both. In this genre, form must support content and content must relate directly to form otherwise the"story" becomes obtuse.

In your artist statement you state the following:
“Currently I am placing emphasis on a series of pictorial, urban landscapes that reflect my desire for art to be accessible and human and represent the things I see on a daily basis. And as an antidote to the strict discipline that thesepaintings require of me, I am simultaneously creating a series of abstract paintings which depict topographical or aerial views of organic landscapes with the encroachment of human structures into them."

Why is it important to you to work on the paintings at the same time as well as utilizing different painting techniques?

It's a restless compulsion to experiment more than anything else. I rarely feel content with one approach to expression.

By challenging yourself and alternating styles, do you now see thelandscapes you take inspiration from or even your own work in a different light?

It's a constant effort for any artist to try to and find a perspective of objectivity in order to glimpse their work freshly for a moment.

Lastly, as someone who has painted many landscapes and interpreted them in a variety of ways, how do you think American culture and landscape is conveyed through your work?

The most relevant conveyance of American culture in my work has come through Rock & Roll concert poster illustration. It is an instant record of a modern cultural happening with immediate cultural significance.