WHEN AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO PAINTING? I got into painting back in high school in my art class while trying to develop an artistic style. Looking at masters like Caravaggio, Sargent, and Velaquez were very inspiring to me personally and artisically. It blew my mind to see how they made each brush stroke on each painting look so effortless and elegant. I was hooked and wanted to learn everything I could about painting in that moment. YOU HAVE COUNTLESS PAINTED IMAGES OF SNEAKERS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOUR FASCINATION FOR THEM? My fascination for sneakers came during a project I was doing back in college. I was trying to explore different ways to do portraiture and other ways of portraying someone’s personality. It didn’t take long to discover everyone’s personality was laced on their feet. I became obsessed with the different styles, shapes, and colors. I tried to immerse myself in the sneaker culture and study all the different facets of the sneaker world. YOU ALSO HAVE A LOT OF URBAN/POP CULTURE INSPIRED WORKS. WHAT MADE YOU GRAVITATE TOWARDS IT IN GENERAL? I have always enjoyed doing portraits. I naturally decided to concentrate on subjects that interested me and expressed my personal interest. Urban and Pop culture subjects have always grabbed my attention. There is always an aspect of fashion or personal style when dealing with urban and pop culture subjects. These subjects I feel expresses someone’s personality in a unique glimmer that the typical eye might not catch at first and I like to be the one to showcase in a larger format. I normally look at icons like Travis Barker, Biggie Smalls, Kanye West, and Bob Dylan not only as musicians, but as trend setters in the fashion world. Even when I am painting landscapes I always try to pull some element of fashion and style with the space I am trying to portray to my viewer. ARE THERE ANY OTHER THINGS THAT PEAKS YOUR INTEREST AS MUCH? Music is a huge part of my everyday life. Being from Philadelphia, I am able to experience all the diverse music scenes the city has to offer. Typography is another passion that has consumed me on a daily basis. I am a novice to it and have great respect for people who are
in that industry. When I am not painting, I am working with type, manipulating it, and trying to understand it better. I hope to fuse the two together in future pieces. HOW LONG DOES IT USUALLY TAKE YOU TO FINISH A PAINTING? Anywhere from five hours to a few months. When I have a fresh idea all flushed out, I’ll use that excitement and energy to attack the painting for a solid 5-10 hours. I’ll then spend a few days or weeks picking it apart, glazing, and fine tuning the piece. I will step back from the painting and work on it for a few hours here and there throughout the course of the week depending on my schedule. I will work at it until the painting finally has the feel I am striving to accomplish. WHAT ARE YOUR MATERIALS OF CHOICE TO WORK WITH AND WHY? Oil paints and canvas. The act of putting a brush to canvas and mixing colors never gets old to me. You get your whole body’s energy involved, and in a good painting, that comes through. The choice to paint came while I was in high school where I was being exposed to great painters by my art teachers and peers. I also remember gravitating towards painting because the computers felt impersonal to use for the art that I was trying to conceive. So when it was time to do a project it was just natural for me to pick up the paints. Now, I am finding myself more captured by computers where I can manipulate a new different kind of art. I recently purchased a tablet to get my artistic flare with my hands onto the screen and I am actually taking some classes this fall for design. ARE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE TO PAINT FOOTWEAR OR ARE WE GOING TO SEE FUTURE ARTISTIC ENDEARS FROM YOU HIGHLIGHTING A DIFFERENT ARTICLE OF CLOTHING PERHAPS? I will always continue to paint sneakers because I feel that I have finally tapped into my niche and I am letting the paintbrush tell the story of the person I am portraying. Recently, I have a bunch of sneaker paintings in progress and will be showcasing them soon this upcoming season. To be honest, I am not sure what may start to spark my next interest in the future but for right now the sneaker art seems to flow through my veins and it feels just right at this moment.