I anthropomorphize the dramas of  animals and humans with a sense of humor and an evolutionary perspective. Evolution by natural selection has equipped humans with the ability to perceive many angles of a situation and still warp it into something it’s not. An easy way to deal with life’s gruesome nature show is to laugh.

Evolutionary arms races and manipulation of one organism by another through many generations can cause physical and behavioral adaptations in all of the creatures involved. In Earth’s history, dinosaurs were once prevalent and mammals less diverse. When a series of cataclysmic events killed off almost all dinosaur species, mammals were able to spread widely after resources became available that had not been so before.  Each ecosystem is made up of a network of relationships, but it is made up of small, self-interested components.  The interactions are not necessarily harmonious.  

I paint a world where the dinosaurs did not go extinct, but did experience some population depletion through catastrophe. The surviving mammals and dinosaurs evolved together over time, but the mammals had new opportunities to diversify because of the shifts in populations and diversity.  The mammals evolved through natural selection to fill the niches vacated by the ecologically vulnerable dinosaurs.

With increased intelligence, clever mammals developed technology and began to domesticate the dinosaurs.  The relationship among the species gradually shifted over generations.  An amiable dinosaur was bred and this led to an unintended consequence, the display of other behavioral traits that were linked to the genes for docility.  Increased intelligence and communicative abilities resulted from the breeding for friendliness.  Genes with complimentary “skills” prospered in the presence of each other.  Traits within a population were favored if they happened to interact harmoniously with the other components that were frequent in the population.  Mammals that adapted in cooperation with the dinosaurs’ changes had an advantage over the ones who resisted the change.  Mammal adaptations developed that favored cooperation with the newly sentient dinosaurs.  A more symbiotic relationship between the mammals and dinosaurs was the surprise result of the selective breeding and domestication.  These paintings illustrate my anthropomorphic vision of such an ecological historical revisionism.

 The concept of manifest destiny has influenced my painted world with an element of parallel historical allegory.  The mammals use guns and technological advantages to dominate and oppress the dinosaurs. The original manifest destiny concept is infused with racial entitlement and religious domination. The way I am using the concept is through a comparison of technologically advantaged mammals’ having this sense of entitlement, like past European conquerors.  In this metaphor, the dinosaurs represent native peoples of areas taken over by the expansionist mammals.  The evolution of the species’ relations over time is representative of the historical shifts in global imperialist attitudes of cultural entitlement during the last few centuries. 

When I paint the clocks, I use my clever animals in a more humorous context. The clocks all have 12 letter phrases that begin the idea process. Once I decide what 12 letter phrases or words I will use on the clock face, I think of a visually funny interpretation for the accompanying painted image. I dis-assemble the clock, make a new cardboard face for it and paint in acrylics. Then, I print out the letters, cut them out with scissors, and glue them on. After that, I varnish the painted surface and re-assemble the clock. The concepts of time and numbers are almost antithetical to words and images. The juxtaposition of the ideas on a single surface, gives the clock a feeling not usually associated with time keeping.  Any clock I make can also be assembled into a functional and great looking photo print version clock.

I paint mostly in acrylics, but sometimes with oils. Spraypaint and airbrush are also a part of my process. I like canvas, but I do paint on masonite and the cardboard faces of clocks. My subject matter has been influenced by biology, evolution, history, anthropology, outer space, death, weapons, and cartoons. The strange places in which humans search for manufactured meaning has also inspired me. Some of those strange places are in paintings of mine.