My painting journey started suddenly as a teenager, prompted by a love for the tactile and messy adolescent desire for self-expression. At the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, I found a group of likeminded peers and together we made wild, sometimes provocative art.
LACHSA helped me get a scholarship to the Maryland Institute College of Art where I had the tremendous serendipity and luck in being assigned Mark Karnes for my painting foundation class.
In Mark’s class, we painted only from life. I quickly realized I didn’t have the skill to paint anything complex, so on an early assignment, I plopped myself down and attempted to paint a doorknob.
Before I knew it, I got totally sucked in. Fully absorbed in painting this doorknob, I felt this deep sense of peace come over me. This moment was when I shifted from seeing painting as a vehicle of expression to seeing painting as an experience. I would spend the next four years studying with Mark, taking his classes over and over.
Mark taught us to pay attention. He used to say “If you think about what you’re going to have for lunch, you’ll lose your painting”. He saw the best in all of us and encouraged us to embrace our own way of seeing. His teachings were then, as they are now, incredibly profound and timeless.
As my teacher and mentor, I’m indebted to him and still aspire to the ideals he embodies and his incredible gifts of perception.
My own practice is grounded in observation. It begins with quieting the mind and focusing on something long enough to slip into a meditative state—what I call “finding the gaze.”
It’s not about realism. It’s about the possibility of becoming one with what I’m looking at. The earnest attempt to let the subject pass through me, directly onto the canvas, without overthinking or forcing it.
My process is simple: Look first. Stay with it. Let perception unfold. If I get quiet enough, if I stop trying to paint and simply be, the colors, shapes, and forms reveal themselves—unfiltered, honest, and just as they are.
I’m drawn to subjects from my daily life- using painting to cultivate a sense of love and appreciation for the world around me.
Each painting is a record of attention—a quiet act of witnessing the world as it unfolds
Look + Linger
There’s more to explore
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Read
Essays on perception, process, and ways of looking. A place to slow down, explore ideas about painting, and spend time with the artists and traditions that make us want to paint.
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Wander
A collection of paintings and drawings created from direct observation. Light, shadow, form—captured as they are, in the moment.
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Learn
Seeing before painting. Looking before knowing. Educational offerings in perceptual painting for artists who want to deepen their practice and trust what unfolds.