I have spent most of my life in the Southwest, and the unparalleled light of Western landscapes has always drawn me to painting. My years of painting taught me that color is vital in recreating the feeling of light. I aim for my work to showcase a fresh approach to color and an illusion of light that does justice to nature.Even experimenting with other subjects, I still find color to be my ultimate inspiration, for color is the artist’s power of expression – and a facet of academic painting that, surprisingly, remains largely unexplored. My greatest influences are Emile Gruppe, Henry Henshe, and Josef Albers. My hope is not only to understand but build upon what these talented artists have created and discovered.