Artist's Statement

Rooted in myth and legend my Monsters also reference actual creatures alive or extinct. As a subject they provide a fantastic way to explore techniques and skills which are an important part of my practice. 

I have always drawn cartoons, characters and caricatures. A style I feel is prescient for our times. Most of us alive today grew up on a diet of comics, newspaper dailies, graphic novels or animated TV shows. Meanwhile other styles of painting and drawing have been out paced with the ubiquity of cameras or the loss of meaning in abstraction. Cartoons allow representative art without a slavish portrayal of reality. This is an interesting space to play in.

In days of old Monsters inhabited the edges of the unknown, figments of our imagination and fears. With most of the world known and no Monsters found there is a role reversal, we humans are the Monsters now. Busily destroying the very world that sustains us through over consumption, greed and exploitation of resources. I hope by painting Monsters of strange beauty people pause and reflect on the wonders of nature and consider how to share the planet with other species.