I am the type of artist that is consumed by a creative urge, all the time, reaching to express what is quintessentially human when I paint or take photographs but at the same time, I still search for something that exists beyond human grasp.
I deal with race, ethnicity, religion, gender, heritage, and sexuality. Very little is off limits. I’m not frightened of exploring religion and the spirit that lies within it. It’s all about breaking down these barriers to get to know one another. I have tried to explore the spectrum of human experience in order to get a more raw and realistic understanding of my subjects.
I have always had an aversion to abstraction, because abstraction without form is meaningless. Essence needs a container, in the same way water takes on the form of the container that you put it in. I feel that a lot of abstract art is a cop-out. It poses as a theory rather than art. Instead, I want to celebrate the beauty, hopes, desires of humanity on a fully conscious level. The abstract can serve to balance it but not replace it.
Whether it’s capturing heads of state, captains of industry, certain celebrities, or children in unheard-of villages, my interest lies in capturing the essence of the human being, discovering the unquantifiable soul and the mystical energy of what makes us human, after all we are spirited beings living a human experience.
My work is trying to jolt people into a new expanded awareness, for us to see what we all have in common. It’s about how we become more aware of who we are. The word “gestalt” resonates with me, it describes the theory that what we have in the world is the result of everything coming together in a collective. And that is what I attempt to fulfil whether it is through photography or painting. It is the sense of togetherness that I aim to capture during the intimate moments in the lives of human beings.