
I was born an identical twin in Schenectady, NY in 1974. I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta and became serious about art at the age of 14, when my father was diagnosed with ALS; he died two years later. After earning a BFA from the University of Georgia in 1997, I walked the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 1998. This allowed me to consider all I had seen, done, and experienced thus far in my life. It changed me in ways I am still realizing. I spent the next three years as a bike messenger in Atlanta. When I carried all of my possessions on my back, I could either work in sketchbooks or stop making art. I chose the first option. I completed two cross-continent bicycle tours in the United States and I continued to work blue collar jobs until I went back to school to support my new family in 2006 at the University of Oregon where I earned a bachelors in biology, a master’s in education, and became a high school science teacher. I taught for two years in a public high school in Springfield, Oregon, and ten years at an elite private school in Washington, DC. Finally, I went back to school in 2021 to earn an MFA in studio art at American University in 2023. I then taught ceramics and foundations of art at Magruder High School for a year. I currently make art full time and run a business tutoring advanced math and science topics in the evenings.
My background, interests, and the importance of justice and neuroscience in education have influenced my artwork, and drive much of my academic research practice. In my artwork however, I tend towards the personal before the political. My research is, like my art, a journey towards understanding not a pronouncement of it. In my research, life, teaching, and art, I am interested in the journey. I ask questions and learn to ask better questions through the asking. As a young man and then as a hiker, I discovered that obdurate circumstances teach me; as a parent I found that my children teach me; as a teacher, I discovered that my students teach me. Each person I interact with gives me another opportunity to learn. Every day I hope to understand more. I hope to become better at teaching, parenting, learning, and making art by continuing to live and staying open to experiences I record in my sketchbooks.
I work in sketchbooks every day. I collect materials to work on in the waste streams of the institutions that employ me and in recycling bins. Though this practice started when I was a young man- from necessity, it is important to me that I am picking up the earth while I create art. The notes I take, the journal entries and poems I write, as well as the sketches and visual experiments I record in my sketchbooks form the center of my artistic practice. My work usually starts with drawing and painting, though I work in all mediums and the detritus of life often finds its way into my 2-D and sculptural work. I let chance initiate many of my images; each painting I create is a portrait of the moments in time that lead to now—combined with the realities I cannot avoid.
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Ritual, Alchemy of Art, Baltimore, MD
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2022
Four lines of Inquiry, Alchemy of Art, Baltimore, MD
Ants are Cavemen, DC Arts Center Nano Gallery, DC
2021
In a little while I’ll be gone, Snake Hill Tavern, Baltimore, MD
2019
Clockwork, The Cutting Room, Manhattan, NY
25 years (A retrospective), Takoma Beverage Company, TP, MD
2015
The Cutie and the Creep, Plaza Fine Art, Silver Spring, MD
2003
Embrace the Monster, Coffee People, Eugene, OR
No limit to that vastness, Jawbreaker Gallery, Eugene, OR
2002
Collected works, Gallery of Unfine Art, Eugene OR
Monsters, Downtown Lounge, Eugene, OR
1999
Be the light, Young Blood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1994
Pictures of you, Lamar Dodd Gallery, Athens, GA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Cadmium Blue Collective, Montpelier Arts Center, Laurel, MD
Transformer Art Auction, Katzen Rotunda, AU, DC
Altered States, Arlington Alliance Gallery, Arlington, VA
Transformation and Change, Compass Gallery, Kensington, MD
Labor Day Art Show, Glen Echo, MD
After the end quote, Yumi Hogan Gallery, BWI, Baltimore, MD
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2023
End Quote, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Katzen Museum AU, DC
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2022
Identity, Katzen Art Center Rotunda Gallery, AU, DC
Cadmium Blue Collective Show, Portico Gallery, Brentwood, MD
Introspection, Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC
2021
Pop-up, Night Owl Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2020
Home, Strathmore Museum Mansion, Rockville, MD
Small works, Y: Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2019
Nocturne: Plein Air. Night Owl Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Labor Day Show, Glen Echo Art Center, Glen Echo, MD
Students of Gavin Glakas, Yellow Barn Gallery, Glen Echo, MD
Superheroes, Y:Art Gallery Baltimore, MD
2018
DC Sticker Expo, The Fridge, Washington, DC
Unframed, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC
2015
I am not me without you, TPCC Gallery, Takoma Park, MD
2003
Dia de los Muertos, Maude Kerns Gallery, Eugene, OR
2001
Prudence, Gallery of Unfine Art, Eugene, OR
1997
BFA Exit Show, Lamar Dodd Gallery, Athens, GA
Theater Productions, Set carpenter/ painting and Prop Design
2024 Sometimes the rain sometimes the sea, American University (Katzen Theater), Washington, DC
2022 Cabaret, American University (Katzen Theater), Washington, DC
2021-2011 Set, Props and Costume Design Instructor, all productions The Field School, Washington DC
2017 Booty Candy, Montgomery College (Silver Spring Campus), Silver Spring, MD
2016 Natural Causes, Montgomery College (Silver Spring Campus), Silver Spring, MD
2016 Firebugs, Montgomery College (Silver Spring Campus), Silver Spring, MD
Workshops
2025 Art Barn various drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics classes, Gaithersburg, MD
2024 Tile painting, Tenelytown Art All Night, DC
2024 Sidewalk Drawing, Tenelytown Arts, DC
2019 Collage workshop, Art Enables, Washington, DC