As a kid, I was captivated by my family's set of The Golden Book Encyclopedias. Not because of the valuable educational material inside but because of the artwork on the outside. I would pull them off the shelf just to study the curious collection of realistically rendered objects on the cover of each book.
An affinity for assemblages of objects in art has been persistent throughout my life. In the 1990s, I made mixed-media art pieces using found objects and in the early 2000s, I worked with photographic images of collaged elements in my graphic design work. With my current hyperreal still life paintings, it seems I've come full circle. Like the pictures I loved as a child, my paintings are full of symbolism that tell stories. The intricate details serve as an invitation to explore the work and consider what it means to the viewer on a personal level.
