At this point in my painting I am trying to explore different aspects of what to do and how I want to go about doing it. A lot of my ideas seem to be unclear at the moment and I am beginning to explore them with drawing to give more clarity and directions to my work. My paintings are somewhat chaotic reflecting all of the confusion, stress, and responsibilities that I am going through. The subject matter consists of issues that are dealt with every day, but which are particular importance to me such as tolerance, restraint, sexuality, violence, and frustration. I consider my own reflections and instincts and apply them to the work. My influences include works by Paul McCarthy, Cindy Sherman, Basquiat, Pushead, De Kooning, Clemente, and many other modern and contemporary artists.
The subculture of Skateboarding and its enormous body of artwork have also influenced my sense of art as well. I often put broken skateboards back together to make interesting surfaces to paint on. Outside of art my activities include playing in a very unstructured hardcore/thrash band called "The Soccer Moms." I occasionally write and draw a comic book called "Brainvomit" and I often make weird costumes to wear to parties as a sort of ongoing performance art project. I take a disgusting amount of Polaroid’s and photographs, and plan on making a short 8mm film sometime this summer. Although painting and drawing is my concentration I plan to take what I’ve learned from that and spread out to many other fields of artistic exploration.
I felt extremely honored in receiving Caleb’s scholarship because I was devastated to find out that I had lost a true friend. It was very gratifying to be honored in his name. We were just beginning to develop a friendship that would most defiantly have lasted a lifetime. We would always be working in the studios together and take breaks every now and then to joke around and make fun of each other. Caleb had a well-developed sense of color and I could always count on him for great advice. I will always be thankful for the time I spent with him.
