My Style and "voice" was born out of pure spite, bad humor, and childish expression. As a young kid, I was a blender honestly, if you could call it that. I participated in and did whatever I thought was "cool," and what people were doing around me to fit in so to speak. So I spent the majority of my early years focused on Ice Hockey, not Artwork. I actually learned many life lessons playing the sport from age 4 to 18, more and more lessons came with every challenge faced during those years. I also learned about what I didn't want to become, or what kind of lifestyle I did not want take part in as time went by as a goaltender. Creating became my life's work/purpose after I finally figured out that I didn't have to do any "blending in" when it came to being who I am today. I have always had a passion to make a dream of mine come true, so I switched from Pro Hockey Player, to Professional Artist. That's why I describe myself as the "Happy Gilmore of Artwork."
"I'm a Hockey Player here to be an Artist today."
I am hugely inspired by the true masters that lived long before I was a twinkle in my Dads eye. Artists like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Piet Mondrian, and the list goes on & on. I take inspiration from all things that I go through in my life, like the bullying I faced as a child and young adult, the voices that I do hear playing tricks on me in my mind, and the many things I connect with on almost a spiritual level. What I see, hear, taste, smell, even breathe. What emotion I was feeling? Was there a presence to that feeling, did it have a face I could put on it? Somehow, I am able to take all of those said inspirations and apply them entirely in the moment of creating. Basically, 90% of my work was not thought of beforehand, and was never fully planned out with the intention to make a preconceived vision a reality. I simply let my hands do the work and my mind makes things work as I am going through the process. I believe that very thing has been the determining factor that sets me apart from most artists today, I work with what I have, and create with what I know. My work has intentional flaws, because I feel as though I have a responsibility to show through my work that life is not perfect, my life is far from it, nor am I put together perfectly as a person. What will be, will be.