Artist Statement

When I began my painting career as a figurative painter, I was primarily interested in depicting the human form in a non-specific way, with little reference to time, place or even gender.

War broke out in my homeland in the late nineties, dramatically changing life for my family and friends. It became difficult and almost irrelevant to continue to depict the figure without reference to place and time. And yet, directly depicting the horrors of war seemed too straightforward and too big of a conceptual departure for me. I was more interested in trying to capture some part of what it feels like to be a human being living at a time of war rather than depicting war itself.

Since then I have been exploring how to find a balance between referencing specific subject matter and my prior interest in depicting the human figure in a non-specific way in an effort to create images that may simultaneously evoke personal as well as universal human experiences.