I consider myself a conceptual artist. I hold a degree in Conceptual and Information Arts from San Francisco State (CIA for short. There's probably a dossier on me somewhere...) "Conceptual" or "Postmodern" art caused quite a stir when first presented in fine art schools - was it really art or just kind of a joke? But I began my studies after this issue was long resolved. So to me, art is a vessel for communicating a point of view.

The essence of conceptual art distills to the notion of valuing the idea above the actual execution of the piece. I feel this is a fairly accurate description my creative process. Often I'll have an idea that takes years of planning and brainstorming but when I actually sit down to execute it I can whip it out in a matter of days. I've developed this way of working because I often find that I don't have the time, money or space to do a lot of the things I'd like to. Sometimes I call my work "Postmodernism on a budget."

When I started doing this kind of stuff, I had a job at a copy shop, so photo-copies were readily available. I started blowing up my photos in black and white on paper because I couldn't afford to make huge photo enlargements. I had a work I called 'Name Brands: a Photocopy of a Cotton Swab' which was a Xerox of a Q-Tip blown up 11" x 17". I had an unlimited edition which I was giving away for free, and then a limited edition of 10 that I had signed and numbered and was selling for $100 each. This evolved into a larger series of works of over-sized photo-copies on canvas embellished with acrylic paint that I call the "Wallpaper Series." It started as a tongue and cheek reference to Thomas Lawson's essay 'Last Exit: Painting' about how the only "real" art is paint on canvas.

I was doing really weird stuff like that, but the "Wallpaper Series" eventually lost all that postmodern hoo-ha and became pretty pieces of art you could hang above your couch. They're still fairly conceptual, but you don't necessarily need to know that to appreciate them. My work is really about conveying meaning through image. I start from my own photo. I will manipulate the images digitally through photo-copying with paint, or I may render the image with Legos before or after turning them into a photo-copy on canvas.

I first knew I wanted to be an artist at the age of 10. I have a newspaper clipping from 1985 to prove it. Flash forward to now, I have been a teacher, an art director, the president of a non-profit arts organization and a curator as well as an artist.

City of San Diego, California

National Art Council of Malmo Sweden

Private Collection of Jack Hershman, Poet Laurette of San Francisco

Private Collection of Sean and Sherry O'Donnel (North Beach artist collectors)