Welcome to Rosewood Cafe

I studied sculpture at the University of Washington, emphasizing in Kinetic and Installation Work. In the summer of 1999, I decided to try my hand in the 2 Dimensional world. My first show was in December of that year at a restaurant called the Alibi Room. The work was mostly assemblage mixed with a couple of paintings and I was fortunate to have someone like a few of the pieces.

For the next few years, I muscled my way through the foreign landscape of showing art in Seattle. Having no training in painting proved to be a benefit and a hindrance. On the upside, I had no one tell me what I was doing was wrong. I was free to try any style and I did. Beginning with painting on top of my assemblages and ending with very graphic design-ish pop art, my range of expression was wide. The downside to this was that I was only using part of my voice. Everything was influenced by what was in at that time and I had a nose for the marketability of a style.

Things changed, though, after a serious injury in 2003 and my paintings became very maudlin. It was one way to get out of painting whatever was the trend as I lost interest in the word "Marketable". In fact, I had my first Solo show in an actual Art Gallery (my goal at the time) in the winter of 2004 and I created paintings with such dark subjects that my sister began to look at me strangely.

Luckily, that phase passed. I have since fallen in love with portraits. Specifically, I am in love with the story a face can tell. These paintings are born of a style I started exploring 2 or 3 years ago. Originally, the series was titled "One is the Loneliest Number" and focused on how a person can be alone and not be lonely. I have since had shows titled "Nuts" (paintings of famous crazy people), "Girl, Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away" (paintings of people walking away) and "Happy Little Accidents" (my favorite saying by PBS painter Bob Ross).

I recently returned from a painting residency in the Southwest of France. For a month I was surrounded by the Montagne Noire where I turned my hand to landscapes for a while. Those can be seen at Woon's Healing Arts in downtown Tacoma. Some of the portraits here are directly influenced by what I learned in France and I hope you enjoy them.