TO START, CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOUR EARLY INTERESTS AND EXPERIMENTS EVOLVED INTO THE DREAMLIKE STYLE WE SEE IN YOUR WORK TODAY? WERE THERE PIVOTAL MOMENTS OR SHIFTS THAT REDIRECTED YOUR CREATIVE JOURNEY?

I suppose that my art has always had a dreamlike quality. I’ve never been interested in simply representing the perceptual world or making some kind of rational construct. I do employ observation and reason, but in the service of unreason. For me, art is always about teasing something out of the unconscious.

In art school, I was pressured to make art to please professors, and after graduation, I made art with imagined critics in mind. It was only after I took a break from painting and then resumed that I was making art only for myself again. So, I’d say that the first, most “pivotal moment” for me was being able to stop caring what others thought about what I did.

The second pivotal moment was to make a painting of burning houses. As a Chicagoan, I was aware of the impact the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 has had on the city’s psyche, and this was my initial inspiration. While in my studio making that painting, it was announced that Notre Dame was burning. Not long after that, the streets of the U.S. were aflame with protest over racial injustice, and wildfires swept the American West. In our politics, long agreed upon norms, shared values and decorum were ripped away. It became clear that my impulse to represent violent transformation was acutely relevant to what was going on in the world around me.

YOU’VE SPOKEN ABOUT TRANSFORMING EVEN VIOLENT OR MUNDANE MOMENTS INTO CONTEMPLATIVE IMAGES. IS CREATING DISTANCE A WAY OF ALTERING PERCEPTION, ALLOWING US TO SEE WHAT MIGHT OTHERWISE BE OVERWHELMING OR OVERLOOKED?

Perception is always altered by whatever value structure is overlaid upon it. We can look at the world through any number of lenses. Look through a moral lens and you’ll become morally outraged. Look through an aesthetic lens and you’ll see the beauty, even in destruction. “Aesthetic distance” is important, but it is also a bit of a misnomer. When we view the world aesthetically, it may distance us from certain impulses, such as the desire to judge, but it also moves us closer to others, such as acceptance and harmony. In fact, we never feel more connected to the world than when we experience it aesthetically, such as enjoying a beautiful sunset. The role of the artistic impulse is to reorient our view, not to obscure or deny strife, for these are facts of existence, but to distance us from our judgments and connect us to the world as it is, pre-judgment. The aesthetic lens allows us to see the world more calmly and clearly, and to accept the necessity in all things.

YOU’VE DESCRIBED YOUR PAINTINGS AS "FILM STILLS FROM A DREAM.” CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT HOW NARRATIVE FUNCTIONS IN YOUR WORK, AND WHY YOU’RE DRAWN TO MOMENTS WHERE THE BEGINNING AND END REMAIN UNRESOLVED?

Artmaking is a semi-conscious activity. If artists know exactly what they are doing and why, then it is not art, but mere communication, propaganda, or design. Our culture has a bias that posits we are sovereign, rational individuals, and this bias leads us to assume that artists are fully in command of what they create and why—but this is fiction. 

As for how narrative functions in my work, and why I am drawn to open-ended narratives, I can only speculate. To me the open-endedness suggests the truth of the world as endless process. Every effect is also a cause of another effect, so that cause/effect distinction, along with concepts like “beginning” and “end” become arbitrary. As Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.” What really matters is not the beginning, middle or end of this or that human drama, but the fact that we are part of this larger unending drama. 

FOLLOWING ON FROM THE LAST QUESTION, WHICH FILMS FROM THE 20TH CENTURY HAVE HAD A DIRECT INFLUENCE ON YOUR WORK? DO YOU CONSCIOUSLY THINK CINEMATICALLY WHEN COMPOSING A PAINTING, BE IT THROUGH FRAMING, LIGHTING, OR IMPLIED ACTION?

I feel a deep affinity with film directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Their films are great for reasons that go far beyond what they are ostensibly “about.” It’s not what the films show so much as how they show it that matters. They recognized that art is a form of daydreaming. In fact, when we are in the dark theatre watching a succession of images, what could be more dreamlike? As a child, I saw classic films on television. My parents allowed me to stay up late and watch the old movies that were aired every night. This, rather than visits to a museum, was my early education in picture composition. The mid-20th century “talkies” were influenced heavily by the silent era, when the story had to be conveyed primarily through images, without dialogue. This way of composing is second nature to me now. I don’t consciously try to make compositions cinematic—they just come out that way.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT INITIALLY DREW YOU TO WORKING WITH 4BYSIX AND THEIR INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE WITHIN THE CREATIVE SECTOR? DO YOU FIND COMMUNICATING IDEAS ABOUT CHANGE, SOCIETY, OR THE SUBCONSCIOUS COMES NATURALLY TO YOU?

From the artistic perspective, I was inspired by the challenge to make a work in response to the found material that 4BYSIX provided me. Taking this project on has opened a door for me into new possibility, and potentially, a whole new body of work. On a social level, I was drawn to collaborate with 4BYSIX because of its mission. While my art might be considered to obliquely contain moral, political or ecological content, it’s not really the kind of art that makes overt commentary. Therefore, participating in this project is a way for me to make a pro-social, pro-environmental contribution while staying true to my artistic vision. My guess is that images and symbols of change emerge in my work simply because this is a time of massive change. It’s something that we probably all know on a subconscious level, and it is probably why so much cultural output of the last 25 years has been dystopian.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE WORK YOU HAVE MADE FOR YOUR COLLABORATION WITH 4BYSIX? WHAT WERE THE KEY INSPIRATIONS AND THOUGHT PROCESS WHEN CONCEPTUALISING THIS WORK?

The vinyl tarpaulin provided me by 4BYSIX contains text, and the challenge for me was to find a way to integrate the text in a way that felt right. I had already started thinking about incorporating text before this project came along, and so making this work propelled me forward into finally doing it. I have no doubt that this textual approach will appear in many future works. Serendipitously, the word that was printed on the found material fitted perfectly into my pre-existing area of interest.

WITH 4BYSIX’S AMBITION TO INTEGRATE RECYCLED MATERIALS INTO THE ARTS DISCOURSE, DO CONCERNS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY EXPLICITLY INFLUENCE YOUR IMAGERY OR MATERIAL CHOICES? DO YOU FIND THAT SOMETIMES THEY SURFACE MORE INDIRECTLY THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE AND TRANSFORMATIONS DEPICTED IN YOUR WORK?

I think that climate change and sustainability have had a huge impact on my art. I have long questioned why we live as if our actions have no future consequences. I believe that the metaphysical biases in Western tradition have led us to devalue the world and the future in favour of abstract values. Re-centering worldly value, is to me, a major (and originally unconscious) theme of my work. Certainly, when we see representations of things we love destroyed, it invites contemplation on what we value, and why. Prior to this piece for 4BYSIX, such themes had not been expressed through materials, but this experience might well influence my future material choices.

AT ITS CORE, WHY DO YOU MAKE ART? WHAT COMPELS YOU TO RETURN TO THE STUDIO AND CONTINUE THIS PROCESS OF TRANSLATING SUBCONSCIOUS IMAGERY INTO PAINTED FORM?

If we ask ourselves why we do anything, and we keep asking ourselves why until we get all the way to the irreducible answer, I believe the answer is always something like: Because I want to, because I have to, because it feels good, because it is good. The ultimate cause is not reason, or conscious choice, but an irrational impulse. As an animal with a degree of consciousness, asking why we are here is a natural consequence of human existence. We can play a role in society, strive for goals, and enjoy worldly pleasures, however, contemplating the significance of our existence and our connections to the world and each other is the highest human activity. We make art as a way of expressing that recognition, and our gratitude. I could have another job, make more money, and have a more secure life, but nothing can compare to art when it comes to giving my life meaning, and this is why I make sacrifices to be in the studio every day. Through art, life matters more.

FINALLY, LOOKING AHEAD INTO THE REST OF 2026, WHAT DIRECTIONS OR PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST EXCITED TO EXPLORE NEXT IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE NEW THEMES, TECHNIQUES, OR COLLABORATIONS ON THE HORIZON?

In 2026, I’m excited to be showing a very large canvas in an upcoming European art fair. Also on the schedule is a group exhibition at a U.S. art museum, plus some other group shows. A large portion of my time will be spent preparing for my next solo show in Madrid in 2027. I look forward to making several works this year that have been long in the planning, while also leaving time to pursue new ideas as they emerge, hopefully surprising myself with new paths not yet imagined.