As a contemporary painter influenced by modernism and formalism, my work celebrates flatness, color, and form. I believe in art for art's sake, just as I believe in music for the sake of music. As a musician, sound itself is what matters most to me. As a painter, I am concerned with what we see: the image itself, rather than any external meaning imposed upon it. I am particularly interested in preserving and celebrating the flatness of the canvas. Rather than treating the ground as a passive background against which forms are placed, I approach figure and ground as interdependent elements occupying the same pictorial plane. I believe that meaning emerges from the painting's formal relationships, particularly those between color, form, line, and texture. These relationships shape our emotional, intellectual, and physical experience of the work. I do not consider a painting complete until every element functions as part of a cohesive whole.
The future is made from pieces of the past, and my paintings are, in many ways, responses to what already exists. My influences span various art movements, including Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, and Minimalism. Broad fields of color coexist with heavily textured surfaces, gestural marks, geometric structures, and restrained palettes, reflecting my admiration for these traditions. I am particularly interested in the tension between geometric clarity and material irregularity, where carefully organized forms coexist with scratches, layered textures, and subtle variations in the painted surface. I am also fascinated by the beauty and complexity of ancient Roman and Egyptian wall paintings and the temporal dimension revealed by their gradual deterioration. Over centuries, cracks, fading pigments, and accumulated layers of texture have transformed their surfaces, giving them an atmospheric quality that I find particularly compelling. These transformations make the passage of time visible and have become an important source of inspiration in my work.
My longstanding practice as a musician has naturally led me to explore the connections between painting and music and the ways they inform one another. Music, particularly in its more abstract forms, can move us profoundly without relying on images or narratives. Similarly, abstract painting can evoke powerful emotional, intellectual, and physical responses without requiring a specific explanation. I see both music and visual art as existing along a spectrum of abstraction, with each medium offering distinct possibilities for expression and perception. I am also interested in how our experience of a painting unfolds over time. From a distance, its overall relationships of color and form become apparent, while closer observation reveals the complexity of its textures, marks, and subtle variations. This movement between the whole and its details invites sustained attention and allows the painting to reveal itself gradually.
When improvising or composing, I allow musical ideas to evolve organically through the relationships between melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and register. I approach painting in much the same way, working with color, form, line, and texture while remaining attentive to how each element affects the others. My paintings are extensions of my music, just as my music is an extension of my painting. Although their materials and means of expression differ, the creative processes are closely related. In both disciplines, I seek to create something beautiful, compelling, and profound: a cohesive work whose formal relationships evoke a genuine response in the viewer or listener.