About My Art
At the peak of its relevance, Still Life was an art form replete with political and philosophical meaning. So-called Vanitas paintings presented an indictment of mindless consumption and the vain pursuit of power. Often, such works targeted specific members of the ruling class, including kings, emperors, and religious figureheads. Even paintings of fruit baskets and floral arrangements concealed a sobering message: life, like the fruit and the flowers, will soon be gone. Still Life offered a space to reflect upon the absurdity at the core of the human condition. Everything we value—wisdom, wealth, pleasure, status, etc—is ephemeral.
Nowadays, Still Life has been mostly been emptied of any symbolic depth. Mass market prints of food and flowers adorning chain restaurant walls are meant to look pretty—nothing more. My goal is to create Still Life relevant to our contemporary moment while, at the same time, grappling with the genre’s political and philosophical underpinnings. To engage seriously in this project is to reckon with the complexity of Still Life’s symbols. I am interested in using art to lay bare the grotesque horrors concealed beneath consumer capitalism’s glossy exterior. But I am no less interested in the unlikely beauty of decaying materials. There is something powerful and cathartic in the idea of using art as a lens through which we can experience sadness as beauty.
About Me
I’m a visual artist, a writer, and a scientist. My art has been exhibited in galleries and fine art books. I’m a member of The Shadowood Collective, which also includes Clive Barker. My clients include Paramount+, Rocket Recordings, Grindhouse Press, and Weirdpunk Books. My fiction has been published in Nightmare Magazine, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Skull & Laurel, and elsewhere. My nonfiction has been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Seize the Press, The Deadlands, and elsewhere. My scientific research has been published in Physical Review Letters, the Journal of High Energy Physics, and elsewhere.