Although my work is primarily figurative in nature and speaks mostly of the human experience, I often employ animals and toys as subjects to convey humor or relatable human scenes in an anthropomorphic way. Hopefully the dramatic features of a toy or puppet or the expression of the face or body of an animal removes the specificity of a certain human model and evokes a universal empathy to its situation.

Another favorite subject in my work are children. As adults, it would be disturbing to others if we dressed in superhero costumes or did mischievous things, but to see a child behave this way triggers our own inner kid and makes it identifiable.

I don’t approach my work with any specific overarching message to convey. I’m drawn to thing like children’s stories, fables, religious art, or the Muppets as starting points for my ideas because they all contain archetypal characters and themes that apply symbolically to all human experience.

If I have a mission with my work, it is not to tell the viewer something they didn’t already know but more to trigger empathy for a subject they might not suspect they had.