My goal is to create approachable art that is interesting to look at. My medium of choice is woodblock printmaking. To paraphrase Jeff Koons, I believe that the purpose of art is to include the viewer, rather than to exclude, and that everyone should be able to understand art at its most basic level.

All art, by its very nature, is autobiographical. It is impossible to create something without putting some aspect of one's self into it. The a'la Poupee art group, founded by some friends at school and myself, focuses on creating work based on the things that you are interested in, rather than on lofty critical theory. Again, accessibility is the key. With this in mind, I make prints of things that interest me: skeletons, monkeys, Norse mythology, comic book characters, Hawaii, etc.

I grew up loving comic books, and learned to draw primarily from copying directly from my favorite comic book artists. This is apparent in my work now, by my use of large areas of black and of flat color, and of the black outline that appears on many of my images.

I took lots of art classes, and tried painting, sculpting, and drawing, but never really hit my stride until I came upon relief printmaking. I immediately took to the carving of the wood, and am still fascinated by the transformation that takes place from the initial concept, to the carved block, to the finished print. I have become skilled at controlling this process, but the happy accidents that occur with every print are still a large part of their appeal.

After completing my first woodcut, a self-portrait, someone pointed out to me the similarities between it and the German Expressionist prints, which I was not familiar with at the time. I did some research, and was surprised at the extent to which this as true.

The prints of the German Expressionist movement are demonstrative of the expressive potential of wood. When working with wood, the medium becomes part of the message. Each gouge and mark made in the wood has a unique, emotional quality, and often as not these marks become more important to the message of the print than the actual subject matter. Every piece of wood has a unique combination of knots, texture, and grain, and the final product is affected and sometimes even dictated by the material. I enjoy working within the limitations imposed by the wood to create different kinds of images.

I draw inspiration for my work from all different kinds of things, from the ukiyo-e prints of the Japanese masters, to the patterns on a burrito wrapper at Taco Bell. I try to combine these influences with my own artistic ideas and create new work that will be understandable, approachable, and interesting.