I view the computer series as Cezannes' still lives, but instead of apples, my subject is computers - although my intent goes a bit deeper. While technology replaces the historically ubiquitous arrangements of fruit there is also the design of the computer itself - the square inside of a square idea. Visually it is the same aesthetic as Cezanne's principles of composition. This interest in painting from technology has been the impetus for the Aerial series which followed the iconographic laptop still lives.
Beyond making the computer an icon, I began to explore the computer as a resource and the Aerial works were born following the laptop still lives series. With the exception of flying above the earth by plane, a hundred years ago, this perspective of earth was not available. With computers and satellite technology, Google maps has forever changed our perspective of earth and this impact on me as an artist has been profound. Following this same interest in technology and specifically computer, I developed an Aerial series in which the computer in a secondary way has been instrumental in my painting as far as subject and composition. In the Aerial works, rather than literally depicting the places we can go on the computer, I ignored the image of the laptop and went right to the heart of the subject focusing on the imagery within the computer and choosing to not paint the machine. This attention to the aerial views through Google maps has given me a God's eye perspective of places around the globe and gives the work a pulse akin to that of current Hip Hop music. Computers connect and disconnect us concurrently. Although I am able to travel the globe without leaving my studio, the Plein Aire methodology is with me. There remains a spontaneous and organic quality to the work. So while technology might be an inspiration, I don't become disconnected and the work does not become cold and static. It is my intention to maintain the same spontaneity working in the studio as when in the natural landscape.
The Aerial views not only are inspired by virtual travel, they evoke a current vibe stylistically. Like Hip Hop music written and performed in phrases - bits and words, I reflect a similar the poetic urban energy in the kinetic vigor of my work with color and movement on canvas. The aerial views are about rhythm, movement, one color colliding into another- color creating a tension and from that tension a form is created. The process is organic and can move like Tupac raping about being black in the 21st century. Hip Hop has a movement - a tension, and I would like the aerial views to follow the same dynamic pulse. Technology and music are the source of creation which have driven me into this "painting space".