I have long been one who tends to keep to himself and like many artists, one who felt a bit different growing up at times. I can recall as a young boy lying in my bed at night, finishing my prayers with, "Dear God, please let me be normal... I love you God, Amen." As an adult, I find it a bit melancholic to think of any young child having these thoughts, yet even today, at times find myself feeling the same way as a grown man.
My current work is in many ways a reflection of those feelings dealt with as a child. Birds have become dominant visual instruments that appear often along with the structures they inhabit. Many of my works address the relationships of birds and the symbolism they carry as vehicles of human emotion. Birds in many ways are the perfect animal; elegant, light, safe, free and capable of flying while making some of the most beautiful sounds. These birds however, often seem to lack the ability to perform some of their most desirable traits. I have found over time that my abstract birds are nothing less than loose portraits of people, often myself, who feel inadequate in a world of busyness and change.
In time, the relationship between buildings and the land in my work have become visual instruments as they define how and where we live. Inspiration is often gathered from a fascination with old homes, grain elevators and their likeness to bird houses along with the rural landscape of Kansas.
It is my hope that through the ambiguous nature of my birds and structures, one may relate to the imagery and find a little or a lot of themselves in the work.