My work is rooted in the tradition of drawing and painting from direct observation. Working directly from life allows me to better observe space around and within objects, and allows a better reproduction of the range of values seen by the human eye. My process also enables me to respond to objects as they change over time, making my relationship with them all the more intimate and personal. Recently my focus has been on drawing and painting the nests constructed by paper wasps. The nests themselves are contained environments, single objects full of unique structures and cavern-like open spaces. A strong light source lends a sense of the dramatic to the nests and highlights their formal beauty by providing a wide range of values over the structures within them. By magnifying what I observe, I give the viewer a chance to inspect a miniature structure, the complexities of which could easily be overlooked. My recent body of work also includes imaginative pieces that are heavily influenced not only by the wasp nests, but also by landscape, Middle Eastern architectural ruins, and images of space exploration.

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